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Young dancers get food for thought
MBTC-03-11-12- Pampered chef day. Bedford Dream On Dance Club holding a pampered chef day . Its a charity day for one of their members Amy Riley, Emma Boswell, Chloe Boswell, Amy Riley,6 and Maria Riley.
A youngster, who suffers with a condition that has left her with an insatiable appetite and learning difficulties, inspired her dance club to put on a charity event.
Six-year-old Amy Riley, of Bridle Drive, Clapham, suffers with Prader-Willi Syndrome, which was diagnosed when she was six months old. She has constant feelings of hunger, mild learning difficulties, very weak muscles, and is forced to take a daily growth hormone injection.
The youngster attends Dream On Dance Club, based in Bedford,, and it held a charity Pampered Chef event at the Methodist Church on London Road, where dance members and their families learnt how to cook low-fat meals with designer cooking utensils and equipment.
Amy’s mum Maria Riley, 49, said: “We were absolutely devastated and stricken with grief when Amy was first diagnosed, it cannot be detected before birth so it came as quite a shock.
“Amy was really ill when she was first born, she was in and out of hospital for the first few months and it wasn’t until she was six months old when she was officially diagnosed.
“I know a lady who holds the Pampered Chef events and she suggested doing one for Amy because of the nature of her condition.
Amy will have to take the daily growth hormone injection, which has enabled her to walk by turning some of her fat into muscle, until her late teens. But once she stops taking it she will put on weight.
Maria added: “We have been very strict with her diet. At the moment her weight is normal, but that is only because we have worked so hard on her diet, it is very very strict.
“Every one calorie she has is equal to about four, and she has a very slow metabolism rate, so when she stops taking the hormone injection she will get fat. “There are certain foods like chocolate that she is never allowed, and never will be.
“Amy absolutely loves her dancing, it has really helped her. She is a lovely girl and we adore her, she is a very funny girl. She deals with the condition really well.
“She has an older brother who is ten and he is her knight in shining armour. He teases her like all brothers do, but I think it’s important she’s not wrapped up in cotton wool.”
The event raised money for the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association, which supports people with the incurable condition that is developed during conception.
For more information on the condition go to www.pwsa.co.uk
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Sunday 19 May 2013
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