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.
SOARING at 112 miles per hour through the air, this petite blonde certainly lives up to her title as the fastest flying woman in the world .
FLYING through the air, these delighted pooches pull their best poses mid-flight .
WITHOUT A care in the world, this little snow monkey puts his feet up and settles in for a snooze .
SOARING through the air, a hungry white-tailed kite prepares to snatch a vole from his mother’s claws .
Southern England, the south-west and west Wales have been warned to expect more wild weather, with heavy rain and high tides possibly leading to coastal flooding and travel disruption over the weekend .
Peering curiously into a basket hanging off the arms of a snowman, this little squirrel appears fascinated by the snowy figure .
A DETERMINED great blue heron holds on tightly to its prey as the furry gopher attempts to wriggle free .
STOOD side by side next to a busy road, these buildings were once bustling with life .
BRAIDED, sculpted and beaded, these are the eye-catching hairstyles worn by the tribal women of Angola .
A grey whale and her calf greet an audience of awestruck admirers on the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico .
FISTS fly as two gorillas take each other on in a dramatic battle .
Megan Brailsford, 32, from Cambridgeshire, met Daniel Dugdale, 29, in September 2020 .