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.
Commuters were put in a HOLE lot of trouble after trains were cancelled by a hole created by BADGERS .
Gabrielle Dale, 26, was subjected to seven years of coercive control and physical abuse at the hands of her violent boyfriend Sean Owen, 29 .
TENNIS was a game made for three according to the first Victorian rule book .
FROM MRS Patmore to Lady Sybil, these barking mad illustrations show the WOOF-er side of some of our most loved Downton characters .
Blonde teen Jess Stubbs has certainly got girl power - as Britain’s youngest TRUCKER .
A chipmunk, with his cheeks full to bursting, has no intention of leaving with an empty stomach .
An adorable red squirrel says goodbye to the summer as he shelters from the rain underneath a small blue umbrella .
A mum-of-two has revealed how her childhood friend of 20 years attacked her with a cosh and broke her nose in a vicious attack .
An American man continues on his mission to document his journey around the globe by completing a world map tattoo on his back .
COULD this £5,000 auction of Paul McCartney’s Liverpool front door be the most bizarre celebrity sale yet? The door, which looks-like it may have been knocked – and possibly kicked – very hard during its past, was used by members of Britain’s most famous band to visit lead-singer Paul McCartney when he lived at the address from 1955 to 1964 .
A woman was diagnosed with cancer after a cyst left her so bloated medics were convinced she was pregnant .
A BEAUTIFUL sight for the eyes and the imagination, these liquid sculptures take shape in many different colours and formations .