A toddler is beating off a rare genetic illness which her parents had feared could leave her brain damaged.

Nineteen-month-old Heather Fox, of Calder Road, Lower Hopton, Mirfield, was diagnosed with West Syndrome - spasms caused by too much electricity in the brain - when she was eight months old and suffered three attacks.

But her mother Sheila, 34, who is a nursing auxiliary, said: "Heather is doing brilliantly and we are really pleased with her progress.

"She had a brain scan at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield which showed no signs of brain damage and indicated she is developing normally for a child of her age. She is walking, talking and is completely off medication. This hasn't caused any spasms which is a very good sign. There are also no signs of autism which the doctors were concerned about, but they have said she might develop epilepsy in later life.

Earlier this year Mrs Fox, who also has a six-year-old son, Aiden, appealed to Telegraph & Argus readers to shed more light on West Syndrome because there was so little information about the condition which is more prevalent in boys. More than a dozen people, mainly from the Bradford area, contacted her to say they knew of friends or relatives with children who had West Syndrome.

But the most help was received from a woman who used to live in Mirfield and has a 17-year-old son with severe brain damage as a result of the condition.

Mrs Fox and her husband Martin, 31, had thought the illness was triggered by their daughter's vaccinations for diphtheria, tetanus and whopping cough but doctors said it was genetic.

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