A DREGHORN schoolgirl diagnosed with a rare genetic condition has had a specially adapted bathroom fitted thanks to a fundraising drive.

Ailey Wales has been left unable to walk, talk or eat, after being diagnosed with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome when she was just 10-months-old.

In May this year the family started raising money to have a special bath fitted with LED sensory lights.

Now, just four months on the family have raised almost all of the £10,000 needed to install the bathroom and it will be completed this week.

Mum Shannon said: “The reaction from people has been amazing. We are just so grateful to each and every person who donated money or helped fundraise in any way.

“At the moment we have to carry her up and down the stairs so having something on the ground level would be amazing. The bath is specially for someone with Ailey’s needs and can be raised and lowered to the preferred height for the person bathing Ailey. It is also equipped with built in LED lights, a speaker for music, jets for bubbles and the option for the use of a hoist in the future. It is everything Ailey loves and would make her one happy little girl.”

Shannon, 25, and Steven, 28, who are also parents to one-year-old Aaron, were devastated to learn the rare genetic condition – which affects only 1,500 people worldwide – would mean their baby girl would never take her first steps, or say her first words.

Shannon said: “To hear that your child will never walk or talk was just devastating. “Those days were terrible. Such a worrying time because we didn’t know what was wrong with her or if she was going to survive.

“It was devastating, it really was, but we just had to try and adapt.

“Even now we are just learning that Ailey is doing things her way and at her rate and we are just following her lead.”

But after being told Ailey would not survive infancy, the plucky five-year-old is proving medics wrong and last month started primary school.

Shannon said: “Doctors told me she might not survive the pregnancy, WHS statistics say she’ll die before she’s two yet here she is on her first day of primary school. She is amazing.”