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UK: He suffers from one of the world's rarest incurable conditions but brave little Aidan still manages to smile and laugh like any other child.
The five-year-old baffled doctors at birth when he began to develop large unexplained growths that have left him with severe mental and physical abnormalities.
His disabilities mean he cannot speak, will never walk and needs around the clock care but he still loves laughing, smiling and having cuddles with his adoring family.
Loving mum Vicky says that on top of the obvious challenges of caring for her son, she has found it difficult dealing with people's reactions to his deformities over the years.
She said: "When we first got him home it was difficult to go out because people would stare.
"We tried to get on with life as normal as we could, but even just going shopping we had people coming up to us saying “what’s wrong with his face? Will they be able to fix him?”
Early diagnoses from doctors included Proteus Syndrome, most commonly associated with 'The Elephant Man', but after months of tests the results came back negative.
Surgery was becoming more vital as the relentless growths began sapping the nutrients from Aidan's muscles and interfering with his breathing, causing increasing worries for his parents.
Father Karl said: "You stand outside his bedroom in the morning and take a deep breath as you go in because you don’t know if he’ll wake up at all. The weight of the growth on the side of his neck is affecting his normal everyday things."
The family's prayers were answered when a doctor at Great Ormond Street agreed to perform an operation on the little boy's face, despite a severe risk of damaging facial nerves and leaving him unable to blink.
Mum Vicky was left petrified of how the surgery would go.
She said: "What if he starts to bleed and they can’t stop it, what if he gets an infection? I’m just trying to think we are doing this for Aidan to give him a better quality of life, so I’m just praying these lumps don’t grow back. I don’t want it to have been for nothing."
The painstaking operation lasted over five hours. After three and a half, the surgeons had managed to isolate the nerves before finally removing the growth, which weighed a third of a kilo.
Shortly afterwards, Aidan's parents were told their son suffers from an extremely rare genetic condition called Cloves Syndrome.
It was first discovered in 2006 and only 130 people have been diagnosed with it world wide. He is a one in 50 million little boy.
Cloves Syndrome patients have a higher risk of blood clots and cancer of the kidney. And there is no known cure.
Vicky said: "We wanted a diagnosis where we could give him this to cure him, but now the future is more uncertain for Aiden because there’s so little known about cloves syndrome."
Despite the devastating diagnoses, of which Aidan is on the extreme end of the spectrum, he has recently started school - and he loves it.
His dad said: "He’s a popular little boy, everyone asks about Aidan, everyone loves Aidan."
Happily, the rare condition is not expected to reduce Aidan's life expectancy, and he may not even require any further surgery.
He will soon be taking part in a pioneering study on a drug called sirolimus, which doctors at Cambridge University hope will help prevent growths from forming.
The trial starts in July for six months and, if it works, his parents hope he can enjoy a life like any other child.
Dad Karl said: "He’s not a baby anymore, he’s becoming a little boy."
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