The parents of two children with a rare terminal disease are celebrating after their “miracle baby” was found to have none of its symptoms.
Mum Lucy Carroll told how she “cried with relief” when their new daughter Renesmee got the all-clear after tests.
She and husband Mike had suffered the anguish of seeing son Ollie, nine, and his sister Amelia, six, fall victim to Batten Disease.
The genetic neurological disorder has robbed Ollie of his ability to walk, talk, see or eat.
Amelia is protected from it for now by a new drug – granted only on compassionate grounds while the family fought a ban on NHS funding for it.
The Carrolls have two healthy other sons, Micky, 11 and Danny, 12. Lucy, 34, said: “We always wanted five children but thought we couldn’t have another baby because of this disease.
"In the end, though, we decided not to let it rule our lives.
“It’s lovely to see Renesmee with Ollie and Amelia, who both adore her. There’s sadness too, though, because as she grows it reminds us of everything Ollie’s missing out on.”
Last September – in a U-turn by health watchdog Nice – Lucy and Mike, 35, won their campaign for Batten victims to be given the life-saving drug cerliponase alpha on the NHS.
Every fortnight they take Amelia on a 400-mile round trip for her treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
Now the couple, from Poynton, Cheshire, are campaigning to have the treatment moved to the much-nearer Manchester Children’s Hospital.
