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.
MESMERIZING night sky photographs offer a spellbinding look at the stars .
WELCOME to the Temple of Zoom where you can “experience” sliding down a Mayan temple into shark infested waters .
A NINJA red squirrel cuts a dashing figure as the little fella jumps up to ten-feet between treetops in the Yorkshire Dales .
NEVER mind being careful not to choke on your food, this mother bird has a bigger challenge on her hands, as her ravenous offspring impatiently launches its head down into her stomach .
MOUTH OPEN wide, this little stoat appears to be in mid-song as he belts out a tune for his onlookers .
A pair of snarling foxes go paw-to-paw and brawl after unexpectedly crossing paths .
As sunlight cascades through its vibrant stained glass windows, every inch of the Nasir-ol-Mulk Mosque bursts with colour .
A brave leopard kicks back and relaxes in the sunshine - just inches from an enormous crocodile .
An Indonesian farmer is dragged through muddy water as he clings to the tails of two charging cows .
A photographer has captured spellbinding images of stars swirling above the English countryside .
Lying angelically with a range of expressions etched on their tiny faces, little bundles of joy are innocently captured in their first few days in these adorable photographs .
A BAMBI was dramatically caught in mid-air by a greedy Nile crocodile in a once-in-a-million flying pincer move .