MY WONDER TEEN

Her daughter may never walk but Melanie Phillips, 46, says it won’t stop her dancing

- VERONIQUE HAWKSWORTH

As the nurse scanned my bump, my husband Lee and I stared at the hazy black and white screen, itching to see the image of our baby daughter. It was my 20-week scan in February 2004, and after one healthy scan so far, we couldn’t wait to see her again.

Only, when the image appeared, the midwife looked concerned. Lee, then 32, gripped my hand a little tighter. It felt like the whole room fell silent. ‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.

Gesturing to the screen, the midwife showed us that our baby’s tiny legs were rigidly straight, as though she couldn’t bend her knees at all. ‘We’ll need to run some tests,’ she said sympathetically.

Up until now, I’d been surprisingly calm for a first-time mum. My worries in the first half of my pregnancy extended to thinking up names or choosing a pram, but that all seemed so insignificant now.

After multiple consultations with various experts over the next few weeks, they concluded our girl must just have dislocated knees. ‘It’s easily fixed once she’s born,’ the doctor reassured us.

I allowed myself to relax again, knowing that our baby was in safe hands. But when Abi was born via caesarean in June 2004, we discovered there was more to her condition than we’d previously thought.

Despite weighing a healthy 6lb, her legs were now jutting upwards towards her body, as though her legs were up by her sides, and despite numerous attempts to breast- and bottle-feed her, the milk just made her choke.

Doctors now believed Abi had an unknown condition that made her muscles extremely weak.