Tayside teenager Zoe Vannet, who has been battling a rare form of muscle wasting disease all her life, has been given a early Christmas present.
As the brave 13-year-old, who struggles to even get up in the morning, decorates her Christmas tree from her home, she today spoke of the joy she received from another teen currently battling her own illness.
The Tele’s Bald is Beautiful heroine Megan Fletcher has been in touch with Zoe to offer her something that’s going to make life much easier for her.
Zoe said: “When the winter comes and the weather gets colder my joints and muscles get sorer and simple things like getting out of bed can be really difficult.
“I’ve even fallen out of bed in the past, which really hurt.
“My mum thought it would help if we could find me an electric bed. She put out an appeal and within a day we had been contacted to say that Megan and her mum Shona had one they were happy to donate to me.
“I’m so grateful to Megan and her mum.
“Having an electric bed is going to make a huge difference to me.”
Zoe suffers from the genetic condition Bethlem Myopathy Muscular Dystrophy.
Her dad Jamie Unwin and gran Patricia McCafferty both suffer from the disease.
Zoe’s mum Gail Vannet said: “When I was pregnant with Zoe the doctors told me she would have a 50/50 chance of also having the illness.
“As soon as she was born, I just knew she had the disease, although we still had to do the blood tests to confirm the diagnosis.”
The disease means that Zoe’s joints and muscles are very weak and painful.
The youngster finds it difficult to walk any distance and uses a wheelchair to get around.
Zoe said: “When I was little I had a special buggy and when I went into primary one I got my first manual wheelchair.”
That was replaced with another manual one and, when she got to primary six, she got her first electric wheelchair which changed her life dramatically.
She got an updated electric chair when she began first year at Forfar Academy last year.
Zoe said: “Getting around now is so much easier.
“Having an electric chair gives me so much independence and I’m looking forward to being able to do so much more for myslef.
“One of my main ambitions is to be able to go shopping on my own. I just want to try to do as much as I can just now for myself because I know that in the future I might not be able to.”
At the moment Zoe, of Forfar, can still walk short distances but she knows that in the future she may not be able to walk at all and will be permanently confined to her wheelchair.
She said: “I’m not going to let it get me down and I’m keeping really busy. That way I’ll know I did as much as I could while I was still able.
“I love to swim and ride which are both fairly easy for me and when I was in primary seven I went on the school trip to the adventure centre at Dalguise and took part in as many of the activities as I could.”
Zoe recently had her hair cut and donated it to raise money for the Brae Riding for the Disabled Centre in Dundee where she spends as much time as she can.