A woman who is allergic to water says she is unable to KISS her fiancé without becoming ill.

Rachel Prince, 24, suffers from a rare condition which means that she is unable to go for a swim, have a bath or even drink a cold glass of water without breaking out in a rash.

The allergy is so severe that even a few spots of saliva would bring her out in horrible hives.

So while most couples will be locking lips on Valentine’s Day tomorrow, Rachel and her long-suffering partner Lee Warwick will have to settle for holding hands.

Rachel said: "It does get me down because obviously I want that intimacy and that closeness.

"But if Lee even gives me a kiss on the cheek I have to wipe it off straight away before the reaction comes up.

"It’s a bit depressing not being able to kiss, but Lee makes up for it in other ways by being affectionate and buying me little gifts."

Rachel — who suffers from aquagenic urticarial — can’t even do simple household chores in case she gets wet, so her loyal fiancé is left to do all the dishes and washing.

Office temp Lee, 26, said: "Sometimes I look at her and I really want to kiss her but I know I can’t.

"I do sometimes get a bit fed up.

"I have to do most of the housework so I’m basically Rachel’s slave and I don’t even get a kiss at the end of it.

"But I don’t mind really, she’s worth it."

Rachel is allergic to her own tears, saliva, sweat and blood and even the briefest contact with moisture leaves her skin covered in a red, angry rash.

Rachel says that the condition — which only affects a handful of people in the world and which has no known cure — may even prevent her from having her own children.

She said: "We’d like to have kids someday but it’s something we would have to consider carefully as I wouldn’t be able to take care of all the washing and cleaning.

"Plus, I would hate to pass this onto my child and with it being so rare no one is able to say whether I would or not."

Rachel, who does not work because cubital tunnel syndrome affects the use of both her arms, met Lee online ten years ago.

Valentine’s Day holds a special significance for the Derbyshire couple as it was the day Lee proposed in 2011.

But when the pair get in front of the altar in the near future, there will be no public display of affection when the groom is invited to kiss the bride.

Rachel said: "He’ll be getting a tiny peck on the lips, if that."

Rachel, who now carries an umbrella at all times, first noticed the allergy at the age of 12 and it has gradually worsened over the years.

She added: "When I drink water, it feels like my throat is closing up and it’s very uncomfortable.

"Fruit juice and tea is not so bad for some reason, but obviously that has water in it too." (The Sun)

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TLC show My Strange Addiction has shown us people addicted to everything from corn starch to sleeping with hairdryers. But the new series, which starts this weekend, promises its most bizarre subjects yet.

Season three features teenager Kailyn, who admits to being hooked on eating plastic.

The 18-year-old, from Sacramento, California, believes she has eaten over 60,000 plastic goods over the past 11 years, and will even choose it over food.

She is seen crunching on a variety of items in a trailer for the show, from water bottles to CD cases.

Listing some of the things she has eaten, Kailyn tells the camera: ‘I have eaten 12 remotes, over 5,000 beads, over 1,000 cocktail swords, 100 forks, about ten water bottles, two pacifiers, three CD cases, about 50 hangers, about 25 plastic lids on to-go cups…’

She admits: ‘Plastic is something I want and I feel like I need.’

When asked why she loves plastic so much, she explains that it is not the taste as much as the texture.

‘It’s the way it crunches and feels and it has a rough but at the same time smooth texture to it,’ she says.

The texture of a television remote control is probably one of her favourites, Kailyn reveals.

Describing how she goes about eating one, she says: ‘I’ll take a button off, and I’ll put it on each side of my mouth, then I swallow it.’

The plastic items she snacks on most frequently, though, are cocktail swords, which she finds in the restaurant where she works.

‘I’m a hostess at a restaurant and I get a lot of my plastic from there,’ she explains. ‘My favourite kind of plastics are the little cocktail swords that you get in your drink.

‘On a normal, non-stressful day, it’ll be a whole sword, 15 times a day.’

Kailyn admits her habit could be harmful to her health, adding: ‘The fact that I am eating this much in a week is huge.’

Kailyn is by no means the weirdest subject of My Strange Addiction this season. The series opens with Nathaniel, a man from Arkansas, who admits to being sexually attracted to his car. (Daily Mail)

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As one of the world’s rarest conditions, the chances of one person being affected by Werewolf Syndrome are very low indeed.

Yet quite unbelievably three sisters and their mother have all been diagnosed with the rare genetic mutation which affects just one in every billion.

The Sangli sisters- Savita, 23, Monish, 19, Savitri, 15 (see the above pic, L-R) and their mother Anita Sambhaji Raut, all suffer from hypertricosis universalis, a disease which affects hair growth around the body and face.

Also known as Werewolf Syndrome, the condition stems from cells which remain open in areas where hair growth is usually stunted, allowing for hair to grow in unusual areas.

The girls suffer from a high volume of facial hair which continues to grow abnormally and is largely incurable.

After battling against the condition for most of their lives, the girls are now starting to bring the condition under control with the help of a special hair removal cream.

There are two types of hypertricosis, one which affects the whole body and another which is only present in a specific area. The condition can also be present at birth or acquired later in life. (wrapup)

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A secretary convinced she was pregnant was horrified to find her "baby bump" was a melon-sized tumour.

Kayleigh Terry, 21, thought she was expecting when she started to put on weight and suffer pains and tiredness.

A pregnancy test came back negative so doctors sent her for a scan.

It showed a cancer stretching from her breast to her lower stomach.

Kayleigh had chemotherapy to shrink the rare Ewing’s sarcoma before it was removed.

The drug treatment continued until she got the all-clear last month.

Kayleigh, who lives with boyfriend Adam Waterworth, 21, in Warrington, Cheshire, said yesterday: "After the tumour was removed I lost three stone. I’m just so relieved to be alive.

"Hopefully I will have children in the future." (The Sun)

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Surgeons are battling to remove a 14-stone (89kg) tumour from a man’s leg.

Nguyen Duy Hai, from Vietnam, has gone under the knife at a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City after living with the huge growth since he was four.

The 14st 2lb tumour will be cut away today during a risky ten-hour operation by a team led by top US surgeon McKay McKinnon.

The hospital says the operation has just a 50 per cent success rate.

Hai, 31, who suffers from a rare genetic disorder, had part of his leg amputated when he was 17.

But the tumour, which is not cancerous, continued to expand, making it difficult for him to walk and sleep.

The growth is thought to be the largest ever recorded in Vietnam.

The hospital said that despite the high risks Hai decided to go ahead with the op.

They said in a statement: "This is a huge procedure with many risks, including the risk of death during surgery or post-operative care."

Dr McKinnon successfully removed a tumour weighing 12st 8lbs from a Romanian woman in 2004.

The hospital said Dr McKinnon has waived his fee for Hai’s surgery. (The Sun)

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For most mothers, tickling their child is just a bit of fun. For Sanchia Norris, it is a way of keeping her son alive.

One-year-old Benn stops breathing several times each night and his mother has to tickle him to force him to start again.

Miss Norris, 41, is warned by an alarm when his breathing stops and rushes to his bedroom to rouse him.

The chartered tax adviser said: ‘I have to stimulate him in some way to wake him up which kickstarts him into breathing again. I either tickle him on the soles of his feet, or under his chin and on his stomach. It is enough to start him breathing again.

‘One night he stopped breathing 23 times and I had to keep tickling him each time to make him start breathing again.’

Benn suffers from apnea, one of the most common problems affecting premature babies. It causes breathing to stop for 20 seconds or more when they are asleep and occurs when a baby’s muscles and nervous system are not fully developed at birth.

Most grow out of it, but in the meantime, stimulation such as tickling is the most common method to get them breathing again.

When Benn was born in November last year, he was dangerously premature at just 24 weeks, and weighed only 1lb 12oz. Miss Norris, from Fen Drayton, Cambridgeshire, said: ‘He was smaller than the length of my hand. The doctors told me that it was extremely unlikely that he would survive.’

But against the odds, after 18 weeks in hospital, Benn was well enough to be allowed home.

His mother is now fundraising for the Rosie Campaign in aid of the maternity unit at Addenbrooke’s Hospital where Benn was born. (Daily Mail)

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A woman has given birth to twin boys whose entire bodies are conjoined — except for separate heads.

They have the appearance of a single child with two heads. Doctors said both heads are perfect and identical.

The healthy lads, named Emanoel and Jesus, were born by Caesarean in Anajas, Brazil. They have two brains and two spines but share a heart and other organs.

Both heads are feeding but doctors are unsure if there are two stomachs.

Mother Maria de Nazareis, 25, was said to be delighted with her twins.

Hospital director Neila Dahas said: "The body looks like one normal child." She ruled out surgery to remove one head, saying there would be "huge moral obstacles".

She explained: "If both brains are functioning, how do we choose which head to remove?"

It was Brazil’s second "two-headed baby" birth this year. The first twins died due to lack of oxygen. (The Sun)

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Mum Georgina Dixon-Lane hasn’t been to a supermarket for five years — because going near bananas could kill her.

The 22-year-old allergy victim rarely even leaves her house in case she comes into contact with the dreaded fruit.

Georgina is at risk of a seizure and throat swelling that could halt her breathing.

She last night said: "I do all my food shopping online. I can’t set foot in a supermarket as the fruit is normally close to the entrance.

"If I’m near someone who has eaten a banana and hasn’t brushed their teeth that can set me off.

"I’ve been told that it’s the natural latex but doctors aren’t 100 per cent sure. I’m so frightened about coming across a banana that I don’t leave my house."

Pregnant Georgina, who has an eight-month-old son, Bobby, suffers from idiopathic anaphylaxis disease.

It also makes her allergic to most fruits and vegetables, paprika, nuts, bread and sausage rolls. She must stay in regular contact with her consultant immunologist who details her diet and medical plans.

Even her wedding day with Christopher, 28, had to be specially tailored to her dietary needs.

She said: "The venue wouldn’t let any bananas on to the premises for a week before I got married.

"Everyone had really posh food but I had to eat chicken nuggets, chips and beans.

"But they had to be Heinz beans as they seem to be the only ones without paprika in."

Mum Joanne, 45, and sister Elizabeth, 24, live within a few miles of her home in Bracknell, Berks, to provide help in case of a seizure.

Georgina said: "My condition is peculiar because I can eat something one day and not suffer from any symptoms, but the next day it can trigger the whole process off.

"I have to act quickly and administer an injection of adrenaline with my EpiPen to stop the reaction. I have to carry one the whole time." (The Sun)

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A man has died after stunned doctors removed 13 pounds of metal from his stomach.

Farmer Kamleshwar Singh was admitted to hospital in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh complaining of abdominal pains.

Following x-ray inspection, three keys, 431 coins, 196 iron pellets and 17 small bolts were found in his stomach (see the smaller pic.).

Despite removing the items, doctors were unable to save his life.

Bhojram Dewangan, Director of Shreesti Institute of Medical Science and Research Centre, where Mr Singh was treated, said, ‘The patient had been consuming small iron objects for the last nine months.’

‘He visited us complaining of intolerable abdominal pain.

‘After sonography and X- ray tests, the doctors carried out the major surgery.’

Even after the tests the doctors who opened Mr Singh’s stomach were shocked by the number and variety of everyday metallic objects they found.

Dr Yadav, led the team that operated upon Mr Singh, who is suspected of having schizophrenia.

‘All the iron objects were lying at the base of his stomach,’ he said.

‘When we started the surgery, we thought we would find a few items.

‘But as we progressed, we were amazed to find such a huge number of coins and pellets had passed into his intestines.

‘Signs of chronic ulceration were apparent in the stomach.’

Mr Singh’s friends and family were apparently unaware of his habit of swallowing iron objects.

His wife, said: ‘My husband complained of frequent stomach ache and spent sleepless nights in the past four weeks.

‘But he kept us in the dark about swallowing iron objects.

‘He stopped going to the field citing weakness and was even unable to have his regular meals.’

In addition to schizophrenia experts believed Mr Singh was suffering from additional psychiatric problems which gave him an appetite for non-nutritional foreign objects. (Mail Online)

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A boy with a rare cardiac condition has been banned from laughing in case his chuckles trigger a fatal heart attack.

Bradley Burhouse has a dangerously high heart rate and is on doctors’ orders to keep calm to ensure his ticker doesn’t beat any faster.

The brave seven-year-old has stopped exercising and his mother has been told to make sure he doesn’t laugh too hard in case his heart develops a severely abnormal heart rhythm, which can cause sudden death.

He’s not even allowed to play outside with his brothers Jack, 14, and Dalton, 12, and sister Maddison, 6.

Bradley was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia after he collapsed earlier this year.

The rare condition in children means his resting heart rate is 120 to 200 beats per minute – at least twice as fast as the average person.

Ventricular tachycardia is caused by faulty electrical signals in the lower heart chambers known as ventricles. These override the heart’s normal rate and rhythm causing the ventricles to contract faster than normal.

This causes the heart to pump out blood more quickly and the ventricles may not have enough time to fill up properly with blood. It can cause chest pain, dizziness and fainting fits.

It can be corrected by a course of tablets or an operation but has also proved to be fatal in some child cases. If the condition worsens the heart can go into ventricular fibrillation, where the brain and muscles stop receiving blood from the heart.

Bradley, from Huddersfield, West Yorks, will have a preliminary examination in the next few weeks before doctors decide what action to take.

Mother Toni Burhouse, 34, said Bradley collapsed and was rushed to hospital in May this year after playing and joking around with his brother.

She said: ‘Now we have to be so careful that he doesn’t get over excited. Even if he’s laughing too hard we have to calm him down and make sure he doesn’t get too worked up. (Daily Mail)

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