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.
ARM extended and head flung back, this little chipmunk performs a loose-limbed yoga move .
It's incredible to think anyone could live in such horrendous squalor - yet two men have been prosecuted for keeping their homes in such revolting conditions that it was no longer fit for their animals .
A brave leopard kicks back and relaxes in the sunshine - just inches from an enormous crocodile .
DIPPING his head into the vase of water, this little squirrel takes a refreshing break from an afternoon of eating .
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 .
A frilled lizard appears to be belting out a tune as it sits in a tree with its mouth open wide .
CLIMBING, falling and tugging on his weary mum, this little orangutan is up to all kinds of trouble .
A BROWN bear wades through waters in Alaska and waits for his lunch .
With a dust covered coat hung from a wardrobe door and a pair of glasses left on a shelf, a remote farmhouse lies abandoned in the Welsh countryside .
SAILING peacefully across a river in the early morning light, a fisherman in China keeps a 1000 year old tradition alive .
SAT ON top of a Brazilian turtle’s head, this little ladybird looks content as he studies his environment from a new height .