Meet the seven-year-old who now faces up to 12 surgeries every year for life after his parents noticed changes to his voice
A seven-year-old Shrewsbury boy faces up to 12 surgeries a year for the rest of his life after a rare illness was diagnosed when his parents noticed changes to his voice when he was a toddler.
Albie McKinstry has already had 28 operations after being diagnosed with a rare respiratory disease when he was aged just three.
Reoccurring Respiratory Papilloma causes non-cancerous growths to form in the air passage and around the vocal cords and was first noticed by parents Kimberley and Thomas who live with Albie and his sister in Bayston Hill.
Kimberley said: “He was around two-and-a-half and had delayed speech. We got his hearing tested and they found nothing wrong and then his speech started to get very quiet.
“He had always been a good eater too but he had started to become really fussy. I took him to the doctors but they said he just had a virus.”
Kimberley and dad Thomas were not convinced and turned up at their doctor's surgery every morning for a week until their GP relented and referred Albie to an ENT specialist (ear, nose and throat).
As the family were waiting for the referral, on Albie’s third birthday, things suddenly took a turn for the worse and the toddler was rushed into hospital.
