“He looks healthy but that’s the heartbreaking thing, because at the end of the day, his muscles are wasting away and he is dying.”

“I didn’t want anyone’s pity and I still feel I don’t need it... if someone says to me have you got children, and then I tell them our story, I can see pity in their eyes. I don’t want that, I want them to listen and understand that I am very grateful for the experiences I’ve had and the time that we had with our children.”

“If I could tell people one thing it would be that having a rare disease does not make you a weirdo. We’re just as normal as you, we just have a few quirks... I just want people to treat me normally and accept our differences.”

“All Lizzie ever wanted was children. She just wanted a nice house and children. Four children she wanted, and she would have made an amazing mum.”

“Eddie’s a boy who is seriously held back by his condition. I suppose in a way, I don’t entirely know who he is because of the fact he’s not developing and that’s pretty much because of the seizures.”

Maddox has a rare genetic disorder, which is a perinatal form of Hypophosphotasia (hpp). “We feel really lucky that we were in the right place at the right time and we had access to the drug for Maddox because without it he would not be here now.”

“The worst part of the condition? The end probably. Seeing my sister and my brother and the way it has affected them, but at this point I’m just trying to be positive. That’s all I’ve ever done.”

Meliz has Beta Thalassaemia Major which is a blood disorder that reduces the production of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the iron-containing protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to cells throughout the body.

“One of the hardest aspects of the condition for me is the tiredness. My back also sometimes throbs because of where the bone marrow is trying to produce more blood cells when I am due to have a transfusion.”

“...I was a single parent I was diagnosed with progressive Multiple Sclerosis. To say it changed my life is possibly no understatement.”

“Everyone deserves the right to live a full life and these bright, intelligent, people need a chance. This is the biggest genetic killer of children under two so these perfectly bright, able children, that just want to be children, are dying.”