RENSSELAER, N.Y. (NEWS10) — A child in Rensselaer is battling a rare disease that will affect her speech, mobility and doctors said she is only expected to live to her late teens or early 20s. Her family is looking for the public’s help to spread awareness and one day save children like Poppy.
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Like many five-month-old babies, Poppy Parkinson loves to jump, grab onto everything she can and babble nonstop. Her parents Samantha Clark and Kyle Parkinson said a smile almost never leaves her face.
“She wakes up and she doesn’t cry when she wakes up and she just kind of like makes her noises until I come get her and then I go, ‘Good morning Poppy,’ and she giggles,” said Clark. “She is the happiest baby, you would never think anything is wrong,” said Parkinson.
However, there is one thing about Poppy that makes her stand out from other babies. At just three months old, Poppy was diagnosed with a rare disease called Ataxia Telangiectasia, otherwise known as A.T. — a disease that will forever change her life…