'Why is nobody saving our little sister?' - children make anguished plea

A family from Halifax is in a race against time to raise money to provide the medicine necessary to treat three-year-old Dua Ahmed's extremely rare genetic disease

Three children whose sister faces being paralysed by a rare disease are asking their mother why no one is stepping in to help.

Dua Ahmed, three, was diagnosed with SPG50 last year, making her only one of two children in the UK to suffer from it.

Her mother Nadia, 38, is in a race against time to give her the medicine needed to stop the genetic disease taking away her daughter’s ability to move and speak.

She has set up a GoFundMe page to raise the £250,000 needed for Dua to receive a trial treatment in the US.

Nadia, from Halifax, West Yorks, said: “It’s an immense pressure for all of us. It’s between saving my daughter and losing her. The worst-case scenario is Dua will lose all movement, be completely paralysed and we will lose her. We know the treatment is ready in a fridge in the US. That’s just crazy.”

Nadia says of her other three children, Ayaan, 11, Raees, seven, and one-year-old Zoraiz: “They can’t understand the concept of, if she can be saved, why isn’t she? They say; ‘Why is nobody saving her?

“She is three-and-a-half now and the degeneration kicks in at five from previous children they have seen.”