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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Charlotte Everett

Mum-of-22 Sue Radford shares sad health update about daughter Tillie

Mum-of-22 Sue Radford has shared a heartbreaking update about her daughter Tillie as she says she needs more operations.

12-year-old Tillie had a frame fitted to her leg in 2019 to lengthen it after it stopped growing when she had a procedure at 18-months-old.

The family have been open about Tillie's health issues, regularly updating their fans with what stage they are at.

They have said that Tillie recently had a hospital appointment, but dad Noel Radford explained that she would need to undergo more treatment.

Speaking in a Q&A on their YouTube channel this week, Sue said: "Somebody said 'how is Tillie’s leg?'

"Tillie had a hospital appointment last week and had X-rays and different things on Thursday."

Noel added: "Her good leg has carried on growing and is now 35mm longer than her poorly leg.

"Her poorly leg, the bottom of bone, bottom of the shin bit, that has stopped growing, which we knew about it.

"But also when she had the frame on last time she fell over and broke her thigh bone, right through the growth plate if I remember rightly, which has now damaged that, so that has stopped growing as well.

"So the plan is she’s having the leg extension again."

Noel went onto explain that now Tillie is a bit older, the process can be done internally.

He said: "But luckily this time she is a lot bigger herself, she can have the internal one where there is no outer sprain, it’s all fastened to the bone on the inside under the skin and there is a remote control to use.

"Whereas before I used to turn the little bolts and screws on her exterior frame, this you just tap it like a chip and pin almost."

Sue added: "Basically Tillie’s knee - because the growth plate has stopped growing, it’s kind of an odd shape so they are planning on realigning it all with the knee.

"Then they’ll lengthen the bottom part of her leg and hopefully that will be it, she won’t need any more operations after that."

The operation is set to last around two to three hours and will realign the knee before a second section to lengthen the leg will take another three hours.

Tillie won't be in hospital too long due to the operation being internal, however she won't be able to walk on her leg.

Sue said her daughter will need the frame on for around five to six months in total.

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