Living life in the shade, the little girl who’s allergic to summertime
MOST youngsters cannot wait for summer, but Harper Mitchell Hyslop is dreading it.
The seven-year-old has a rare and incurable lung condition which causes her body to overheat.
The resultant inflammation makes her so hot that even an ice cream can make her sick because it curdles when she eats it.
Harper is the only person in the UK, and possibly Europe, with a children’s interstitial lung disease (chILD) so rare it has no name.
While her friends are off enjoying their summer holidays, the youngster carries oxygen in a backpack and stays at home with her parents Jodie, 38, and 40-year-old John.
Harper, from Balloch, Dunbartonshire, is left panting ‘like a puppy’ when the sun shines because her lungs become so inflamed.
When she first became ill at the age of five her parents were initially confused about what was happening to their daughter.
Her flu-like symptoms were believed to be due to a virus before chILD was diagnosed in 2016.
Mrs Mitchell Hyslop, a social care worker, said: ‘Her eyes got dark, she was having flu-like symptoms.
‘She was struggling to breathe. I knew it was more than a virus. She was admitted to hospital. She had severe pneumonia, then I saw the X-ray results of her lungs. It showed they didn’t function properly and it becomes worse when it’s warm.
‘If we hadn’t gone at that time Harper wouldn’t be with us now.’
ChILD lung diseases make it harder for the lungs to inflate and cause a lack of oxygen in the blood.
Mrs Mitchell Hyslop said: ‘She can’t be out in the heat like her friends. She feels sad about that but it’s about trying to teach her how to work with her condition.’
Harper told the BBC: ‘I just feel different from my friends.’
Her mother added: ‘It is isolating, but she takes it in her stride. I want her to live a fulfilled life like any other child growing up.’
‘Lungs weren’t working properly’