Our Tiny Dancer

Nothing will stop Kershwin’s girl.

- Joe Cusack

Kershwin Barlow, 25, Stoke on Trent

Ten little fingers, ten little toes… That’s what every parent looks for when they first hold their newborn.

But when my baby girl Scarlett was placed in my arms, her tiny foot poking through her blanket, I gasped. 

She’d no toes to count. 

When I was carrying Scarlett, scans showed that she wasn’t developing properly.

Me and my fiance Jonathan Wright, 28, had been out of our minds with worry.

At 32 weeks, my doctors decided they could wait no longer, and Scarlett was delivered in January 2013 by emergency Caesarean section, weighing a little over 3lb. 

I was allowed one quick cuddle before she was whisked away to the Special Care Baby Unit.

And it was then that I saw her tiny feet. There was also a mass of blood on her head where she was missing some skin, and her fingers were too short. 

‘We need to run some tests,’ her doctors said.

They admitted they had no idea what was wrong.

Jonathan and I were stunned. We’d prepared ourselves for a tiny baby – but not this. 

Jonathan had been born with two fingers missing, and his feet were only a size-5, even though he was over 6ft tall.

Scarlett was also missing a finger on her right hand, and had a permanent bald patch on her head.

Could there be a connection?

Fighting spirit