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.
Here's a APPY solution that should brighten up a wet weekend away camping - a wood powered stove that also recharges your smartphone .
THEIR gnarling teeth at the ready, these two baboons fight it out for the last piece of fruit .
A kingfisher’s bright blue and orange feathers glisten in the sunlight as the bird dives into a lake .
BEHIND the doors of this building, with its stacks of mattresses and discarded remains of wheelchairs, lies another victim of austerity cuts .
WELCOME to the 125 decibel boombox bus that could damage your hearing if you party too close to its giant speakers .
Sitting all alone on drift ice in the Arctic Ocean, this lonely little fella looks lost .
A grey whale and her calf greet an audience of awestruck admirers on the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico .
THIS RING of fire in the sky is the annular solar eclipse that wowed our cousins down-under .
The beds are consumed by moss instead of customers at this abandoned hotel .
This is the amazing moment two white-tailed kites take an in-flight meal - exchanging prey at 100 foot high in mid air .
A baby sperm whale assumed the role of a friendly giant when faced with two awestruck divers .
THIS is the fascinating abandoned house, complete with mystery portraits and homely items, that has been dubbed - crooked cottage .