A TEN-year-old girl has become one of only around 200 in the world to be diagnosed with a rare genetic condition.

Jessica Clavering from Chapelford has Wiedemann-Steiner syndrome, a condition with only a few hundred documented cases worldwide.

Her parents had long sought a formal diagnosis, with Jess having developed slowly from an early age.

They were finally told that their daughter had Wiedemann-Steiner syndrome in May following a study by Alder Hey Children's Hospital a number of years earlier.

Many medical professionals that the family have encountered since then have never heard of the condition.

Mum Clare Clavering, of Montgomery Close, said: "When Jess was born everything was normal, but then she had a lot of feeding problems and slow growth.

"We always felt there was some sort of underlying condition and we did a developmental delay study with Alder Hey Children's Hospital about three or four years ago, and we got the results back with her diagnosis two months ago.

"It's a very rare condition and one that hasn't been heard of at all - even the doctors hadn't heard of it."

Jess, a pupil at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Penketh, suffers from low muscle tone, a short stature, anxiety, dental problems and constipation because of Wiedemann-Steiner syndrome.

Neither Clare or Jess' dad Paul are carriers of the condition, which is caused by a spontaneous genetic mutation.

It is unknown how Jess will develop in the coming years.

Clare is now hoping to raise awareness of Wiedemann-Steiner syndrome.

She added: "Jess herself is a happy child, which is actually one of the symptoms of Wiedemann-Steiner syndrome, although she struggles with high anxiety levels.

"Jess is two or three years behind at school and she struggles socially.

"Because there's no information or help for Wiedemann-Steiner syndrome it's hard, as it's such a new condition and nobody has heard of it whereas with something like autism there is a lot of information and help.

"She is coming up to the time now where we have to apply for high school and we're still not sure whether she should go into a mainstream or specialist school.

"It's such an unknown condition that we don't know what's coming next."