Battler Turns 20 I'm Happier Than Ever

Michelle may have a rare genetic condition that means she’s mistaken for someone half her age, but it doesn’t stop her living life to the full.

- Tom Midlane

When Michelle Kish and her sister stand side by side, it’s easy to understand why people think they were born years apart.

Michelle, 20, only comes up to 22-year-old Sarah’s waist.

She was born with Hallermann-Streiff syndrome, a condition so rare that at the time of Michelle’s birth, there were only 250 known cases worldwide.

Symptoms of the condition include distinct round, childlike facial features and a form of dwarfism that means Michelle is regularly mistaken for someone half her age.

The diagnosis was a shock. ‘When I was pregnant, everything was normal. There was no issue at all through the pregnancy or through the delivery. It was very normal,’ Michelle’s mum, Mary, explains.

Doctors immediately realised something was wrong, but Michelle’s condition was so rare that they had to bring in a geneticist from another hospital, who was able to diagnose her from having seen pictures in medical textbooks.

‘No-one had ever seen it in person at Children’s Memorial Hospital, where Michelle was born,’ Mary, from Illinois, US, goes on to explain.