Born Different

Fragile Zoe Lush has a rare condition which means her bones are so delicate they ‘break in the wind'. Zoe broke several bones whilst she was still in the womb, shattered her collarbone during birth and broke another 100 bones before her first birthday. Now Zoe, who is six-years-old, has broken almost every bone in her body and was almost internally decapitated after bones in her neck began to wear away. Zoe lives with her mum Chelsea Lush, dad, Curtis Lush, and three year old brother Felix, in Huntington Beach, California.

A MAN who is only 23 INCHES TALL and weighs 15lbs is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu god. Manpreet Singh is 21-years-old and is the same height and weight as a six month old baby and is believed to be one of the smallest people in the world. Since the age of 12, he has been worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu god by the local villagers and people visit him every day to be blessed. The young man from Punjab, India was born a healthy baby boy but his parents Jagtar Singh and Manjeet Kaur say his growth stopped when he was six months old.

IN MATCHING blue jeans, white smocks and suede boots, five year-old identical twins Abigail and Isobel are not only impossible to tell apart - they're also one in a million twins. Because while the chances of giving birth in the UK to a baby with Down's syndrome is approximately one in 1,000, the odds of giving birth to identical twins with the condition is one in a million. Mum and dad Jodi and Matt Parry couldn't be prouder of their daughters and say even if their adorable girls could be born again without Down's syndrome, they wouldn't wish for Abigail and Isobel to be any different.

Determined to become the first male amputee signed to a modelling agency, personal trainer Jack Eyers has already made history as the first male amputee model to walk at New York Fashion Week. The 26-year-old from Bournemouth, has also walked at London Men's Fashion Week and Milan and Russia Fashion Weeks, as well as appearing on the cover of Men's Health UK. What makes Jack's rise all the more astonishing is that he was born with a debilitating condition and chose to have his leg amputated aged 16 - and claims it was "the best decision" he ever made.

A WOMAN suffering with an extremely rare condition means she constantly smells like FISH. Kelly Fidoe-White, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, has lived her entire life with Trimethylaminuria – a disorder more commonly known as 'fish-odour syndrome.' People suffering with the metabolic condition regularly produce a range of strong bodily odours including rotten fish, onion and faeces - Kelly describes her own smell as ‘fishy-oniony.'

A FATHER suffering with a genetic condition has ‘bubble-like' tumours covering his entire body. Believed to be suffering from Neurofibromatosis, Shadot Hossain is in a race against time to secure surgery to save his sight - and his life. Without an operation to slice away at the overgrown tumours on his face 47-year-old Shadot could permanently lose his vision.

A life coach is using the challenges she has faced due to her dwarfism to empower others. Born with a type of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenital (SEDc), Julie Bond Genovese stands at 4ft 3in tall and says her condition has been a ‘mind-blowing and heart-wrenching all-you-can-hurl rollercoaster ride' and she grew up believing she was ‘cursed.' The counsellor from Dover, New Jersey, describes the way children with dwarfism are measured, talked about by doctors, and put through surgeries, which creates an inner sense of being a ‘broken person.' But Julie says that the years of operations, stares, bullies and rejection has made the 53-year-old the strong woman, mother, wife and successful therapist that she is today.

Parents of twins with autism so severe they were forced to contain them in a prison-like home have gone to great lengths to improve their behaviour. As Mark and Annie Montague walk arm in arm along the beach, with their 11-year-old twins chasing waves in and out of shore, they are the image of a perfect family. But their home in nearby Graveney, Kent tells a more complicated story. In this idyllic village, a detached ramshackle house stands surrounded by high fence posts and chicken wire. Inside, doors are bolted shut, telephones are hidden in locked wooden boxes metres from the ground and barring a table, few chairs and a sofa there is no furniture. No carpets line the floors and a lone painting is tightly screwed in place. This has been a way of life for the Montagues since their twins, Samuel and Jacob, 11, were diagnosed with severe autism when they were just two-years-old.

MEASURING 87cm in height and weighing 20kg, Sari Rezita Ariyanti looks like your average three-year-old, except she isn't a toddler - she's actually 24-years-old. Born on 16 October 1993, Sari is unable to walk and has to rely on her relatives to push her around in a wheelchair. Sari also struggles to communicate verbally other than a few simple words and sounds. Sari's mother didn't even realise her daughter suffered from any kind of medical condition until she was two-years-old. The second of five children, Sari lives with her mum, Suryani H Suud and sister Lela in Didie Jaya District, Indonesia.