Toddler hit by rare brain disease

The family are fund-raising for research into the disease

A three-year-old girl from Northumberland has been diagnosed with a rare genetic brain disease.

Anya Potter has White Vanishing Matter disease - a form of the terminal disorder leukodystrophy.

Her parents, Craig and Kerry, have been told by doctors that she now has a very short life expectancy.

The couple, from Hexham, said there was also a one in four chance that her 10-month-old sister, Taylor, has the disease.

Mr Potter said coming to terms with the diagnosis had been very hard for the family.

He said: "Being told the devastating results on the day was a horrific thing.

"Nothing could have prepared us for that news."

The family is now committed to fund-raising for research into the disease, which leads to a gradual loss of mobility and speech before death.

Leukodystrophy was the subject of the film Lorenzo's Oil, in which the parents of a boy suffering from the Adrenoleucodystrophy type of the disorder, tried to find a cure.