A nine-year-old girl with a rare chronic illness has been targeted trolls.
"One-of-a-kind" Poppy-mae Jones from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, has suffered from a bowel condition since birth and is left in excruciating pain each day.
But that didn't stop horrible comments being aimed at the young girl online, which has affected her and the whole family, " the Echo reports.
Poppy's bowels don't work as they should and she also has fructose malabsorbtion (a condition which stops the body absorbing fructose in foods) which causes cramping and pain.
The youngster was fitted with a tube attached to her bowels to deliver medication to help try to reduce the size of her bowels and ease some of her pain.
But despite the chronic illness Poppy-Mae has raised thousands for Alder Hey and other charities since the age of five.
Poppy's mum Shannon said: “Poppy has suffered since she was a baby with bowel issues. It’s obviously really hard to diagnose bowel issues at any age but especially as a child.
"She also suffers with joint hypermobility and has limited movement in her hips and legs and gets a lot of pain.
“As she’s gotten older and her bones are growing, things aren’t getting better. They’re actually getting worse.”
In 2020, the family were told by a physiotherapist that using a wheelchair might be beneficial for Poppy-mae when she was particularly struggling, but, trolls attacking the little girl stopped the family from pursuing the option until last month.
Sharon added: “Unfortunately there were a lot of negative comments made over it and it really upset her, as well as me and her dad.
"Poppy has a lot of involvement in her Facebook page and likes to read the comments. We obviously try and shield her from negative remarks but that’s not always possible.
"We’ve been managing without but obviously, as she’s getting older, I can’t carry her in the same way I did when she was little.
“People said things like ‘she’s just climbed up the stairs, why would she need a wheelchair’ which is why we put it off for so long.
"She did have physical therapy and hydrotherapy and we encourage her to keep active and exercise but there’s times when I pick her up from school and she physically can’t walk because she’s been active all day.”
Although Poppy-mae’s parents are keen for her to stay active, the family has already seen the benefits of using the wheelchair.
Sharon said: “We use it on occasion. She and I went to London recently for my birthday so we took the wheelchair with us which was an actual godsend for her because she was able to enjoy going around without thinking she could only go so far as she couldn’t walk.”
Last year, Poppy spent two days "climbing Snowden" by climbing the stairs in her house, with her fundraising exploits having raised more than £12k over the last few years.
Sharon said: “She started fundraising by doing walks when she was five and her joints weren’t as bad.
"Anyone who suffers with joint pain or muscle pain will know you can have really good days where you feel no pain whatsoever but you can also have really debilitating days where you can’t even pick up a pen without it hurting.
"Obviously, the difference with a child is that they haven’t learned their limitations yet.
"Poppy is a very stubborn little girl so when she sets her mind to something, she’ll push and push even though she suffers.
"She’s such a people pleaser that she wants to help others even though she might be suffering.”
She added: “We were talking about doing something less physical with our local Morrisons where Poppy sat in a bath of beans so that might be one for the future. We’ve also spoken about maybe doing something incorporating her wheelchair."
