She is about to start driving and soon will be able to legally buy alcohol and get married, but Poppy Webb-Jones still looks and thinks like a ten-year-old girl. Unlike other 17-year-olds, Poppy is more interested in Hannah Montana and Justin Bieber than wearing make-up, experimenting with boys or staying out late. This is due to a rare condition which means she was born without any hormones, meaning she has never gone through puberty, never had a growth spurt and never thrown a teenage tantrum. To many parents of teenagers, Poppy must sound like the perfect child, but unbeknown to her or her mother Karen Webb-Meek, her condition posed a deadly risk to her health throughout her whole childhood. Poppy was born with a condition called panhypopituitarism meaning she lacks most of the hormones essential for life. Hypopituitarism is the decreased secretion of one or more of the eight hormones normally produced by the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. If there is decreased secretion of most pituitary hormones, the term panhypopituitarism (pan meaning "all") is used. Poppy has no growth hormone, meaning her bones stopped growing around the age of 11, and she has no thyroxine, which regulates the metabolism and energy levels. In addition she has no oestrogen, which controls the onset of puberty and the development of secondary sexual characteristics.
A chipmunk, with his cheeks full to bursting, has no intention of leaving with an empty stomach .
If you had to scrape the snow off your car this morning or slip-slide your way into work over icy pavements spare a thought for these little critters .
Staring death in the face, a little field mouse bravely confronts a hungry cat .
Sitting all alone on drift ice in the Arctic Ocean, this lonely little fella looks lost .
PAWS for thought as you feast your eyes on this rare bear bathing session .
FULLY equipped with a kitchen and lounge, it's hard to believe this modern holiday let is actually a BUS .
A US firefighter has battled osteoarthritis and four hip replacements to break the world paddleboarding record .
LIKE A living balloon this baitball of sardines is ready to burst when threatened by a pointy nosed sailfish .
A trout manages to escape the jaws of a hungry cormorant - only to find itself back inside the bird's long beak .
COURAGEOUS CLIMBERS scale frozen waterfalls in Canada, as the ice threatens to collapse beneath them .
NEW DELHI, A woman activist of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party crosses a police barricade near the residence of ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi during a protest against the recent rape of a five-year-old girl in New Delhi, India, April 21, 2013 .
The view from this rooftop pool is sure to make most holidaymakers envious .