Emmerdale’s Laura Norton and Mark Jordon have revealed that both their children have been diagnosed with a rare genetic disease.
The couple, who are well known for their roles as Kerry Wyatt and Daz Spencer on the ITV hit soap, share two children together with their second child, baby daughter Ronnie, born in October last year.
But family life with the new-born has been difficult for the pair after a series of health issues for both their children who have been diagnosed with Usher syndrome.
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While the parents had suspected their first child also had the condition in 2021, they kept the news under wraps. Usher syndrome is a rare genetic disease that affects both hearing and vision, requiring both children to wear hearing aids for the rest of their lives and potentially deal with sight loss into their teenage years.
Laura admitted that she was left ‘in tears’ as she adjusted to the news. Speaking to Hello! Magazine, the couple, who met on the set of Emmerdale in 2014, spoke out on the condition for the first time.
Laura explained that she had a gut worry that there was an issue, she said: “My intuition told me there was a serious problem and I was in tears at the thought of it. Knowing that we'd passed this on to our son was heartbreaking.”
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She continued: “To watch our little boy enjoy the world around him yet know so much will be taken from him, was painful.” Jesse now wears a hearing aid, with mum Laura explaining that he can “hear airplanes in the sky before we can.”
While it was bittersweet welcoming their daughter Jesse last year and going through the same issues as she was also diagnosed, the couple admitted that they at least knew what to expect the second time around.
Looking to the future, the couple are now hoping to raise awareness and help others with children suffering, and Mark is heading to Parliament this week to lobby MPs about raising awareness of Usher syndrome and campaign for funding.
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