7-Year-Old Suffers From Rare Aging Disease, Has Face And Body of Elderly Woman
Jun 9th, 2010 by Bilal Ali
7-year-old British girl suffers from a rare genetic aging disease that causes her to age 8 times faster than normal, leaving her with the face and body of an elderly woman.
Ashanti Elliott-Smith is one of only 52 people in the world that suffers from Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, a rare disease that speeds up the aging process and is expected to cut her life expectancy down to just 12-years-old.
The young girl stands at just 3-foot 2 inches tall and is expected to have issues normally associated with the elderly including arthritis and a weakening heart.
Ashanti was a normal baby at birth but started having convulsions at three weeks old before being diagnosed.
The New York Post reports that little Ashanti lives her life as a normal 7-year-old girl and says when people stare at her, “It’s because I’m beautiful.â€
By the time she’s ten she’s expected to have the body of an 80-year-old and just two more years to live.