TRAPPED IN THE BODY OF A 10 YR OLD: TEENAGE GIRL BORN WITHOUT HORMONES

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.

Other great stories
ANCIENT ABANDONED WEBSITES THAT STILL WORK TODAY

A host of websites that are almost twenty years old are collecting a cult following thanks to their retro appeal .

PHOTOGRAPHER BLENDS NIGHT AND DAY IN CITYSCAPES

ALL IS not as it seems in these deceptive cityscapes .

WIFE CELEBRATES MARRIAGE BY SNOWBOARDING IN WEDDING DRESS

SNOWBOARDING in your £2,000 wedding dress sounds like a nightmare for most brides .

WELSH HOTEL ONCE HOME TO WWI SOLDIERS NOW LIES ABANDONED

A grand 56-bedroom hotel, once heaving with injured soldiers during the First World War, now lies completely abandoned .

SLEEP PARALYSIS DREAMS TURNED REALITY

SITTING on a burning sofa unable to move, one man turns his terrifying dreams into reality .

MOST DANGEROUS ROAD IN THE WORLD

AT 4,800 metres high and just three metres wide, this is the most dangerous road in the world .

AMAZING PEN ART

FROM THE world famous Girl with a Pearl Earring painting to a jaguar in the grass, these incredible drawings are created from coloured ballpoint pens .

MOUNT BROMO METEOR SHOWER

A SPECTACULAR array of stars fills the night sky as they soar over this active volcano .

FIGHTING FOXES

A pair of snarling foxes go paw-to-paw and brawl after unexpectedly crossing paths .

THE END OF THE WORLD CINEMA

SITTING in the middle of a vast desert, an abandoned cinema is still waiting for its first movie to be screened .

DIVERS EXPLORE UNDERWATER CANYON WITH 100M VISIBILITY

A diver explores the crystal clear waters of the Silfra canyon in southern Iceland, which is the only place on Earth where you can dive or snorkel between two continental plates .

POOCHES POSE IN THEIR ELABORATE HEADSCARF COLLECTION

WRAPPED up in classy headscarves, these adorable pooches are the picture of sophistication .