Hope has Glutaric Academia Type 1, which is a rare metabolic condition.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t diagnosed until she had the Heel Prick Test when she was 5 days old. It was then established that when Hope was born she had had a metabolic crisis which caused brain damage, affecting her mobility and speech.
Hope cannot break down proteins and her body can only cope with 0.05 grams or less per 100 grams; a very small bar of Cadburys chocolate contains 3-5 grams of protein, for example.
Hope is basically on a vegan diet and has to have special low protein mixes/formulas; her favourite one is chocolate-based. Despite this, Hope goes to a mainstream school and has lots of friends and is doing really well.
Hope loves Disney and her Dream was to go to Disneyland Paris.
Just to see Hope’s face when she met Tigger was worth more than anything. Hope loved the Princesses and all the characters and got so excited when she met them all. They signed her autograph book and had pictures taken with her. They made Hope feel very special.
Hope has some fantastic memories, and we cannot thank everyone at The Dream Factory enough for making the whole experience very enjoyable and making Hope’s Dream come true. Hope came on the phone and I asked her what was the best part – she said PRINCESSES; her next words where THANK YOU.
You can tell from her smiles in the pictures how much fun she had.
