The little girl born with TWO wombs, no vagina or rectum

An eight-year-old girl is living with an incredibly rare condition which means she has two wombs and no vagina, rectum or anus.

Poppy Wadsworth's parents have said she has the genitals of a 'doll' as she just has skin where her excretory passages should be.

She is unable to use the toilet, and has her waste taken from her body by a stoma bag, which she has had from birth.

She was born with a condition called cloaca, which is when the rectum, vagina and urethra share a common channel, that doesn't leave the body in Poppy's case.

Cloaca occurs in 1 per 50,000 live births and exclusively in girls.

Poppy only has one kidney, which does not work properly, meaning she is permanently on antibiotics to fight infections.

Doctors in the UK have operated on her to make her life as normal as possible, but they have now told her mother Alison, 45, that there is no more they can do.

But her condition is so severe and unusual that a hospital in the US has agreed to pay half the cost of an operation that could change her life, so they can study her for research purposes.

A specialist surgeon in Ohio, Mark Levett, would operate on Poppy to allow her to use the toilet normally and maybe have children one day.

The total cost is £100,000, and Ms Wadsworth has so far raised £36,000 of her £50,000 contribution.

Ms Wadsworth, who lives in York, said: 'I asked the surgeon at least three times during our conference call: "Can you fix her?" "Yes, I can fix her," he said.'

The surgeon said he could fashion Poppy a vagina, reshape her bladder and give her working kidneys. He will also remove one of her wombs.

She will have a button that allows her to 'flush' her bowel with saline every day.

Ms Wadsworth, who has another son James, 15, had no idea what was wrong when doctors whisked Poppy away soon after she was born.

'It was a seven-minute birth, then they whisked her off for a bath and delivered her back to me wrapped in a pink blanket,' said the mother-of two, who divorced Poppy's father five years ago and is now a single parent.

'I didn't notice anything. It was only 24 hours after Poppy was born they realised there was a problem.

'She was like a doll. She had the little line of a girl and then nothing. Just pure, smooth skin.

'They had to do blood tests to determine if she was male or female.

'The doctors said, "don't worry, she will still be your little girl".

'Because she had problems with her bowels, they operated straight away and put a stoma in.'

Ms Wadsworth says she tries her best to help Poppy lead as normal a life as possible.

'I explained her condition by saying she is like a doll,' she said. 'I even got her a teddy with a stoma.'

'When she went into reception a couple of boys said, "Eww, are you wearing a nappy?'" They could see she was wearing something bulky under her clothes.

'We told the school about her stoma and explained what it was. They explained to the other pupils and now they have all accepted her for who she is.

'A couple of kids are even jealous because she's "special".

'I tell her she's lucky because, when she's playing in the park with her friends, she doesn't need to go in a bush if she needs the loo.'

Ms Wadsworth, who works as a self-employed hairdresser so she has flexible hours, has been fundraising tirelessly since March for Poppy's life-changing operation.

Family and friends have been doing sponsored walks and bake sales, and she has have organised a sports evening and a country music festival.

Local schools have organised dress down days in a bid to raise money.

Ms Wadsworth added: 'Poppy has been involved too. We set up "Poppy's Boutique" in our village with some of her old clothes and designer gear donated by other people.'

She has managed to raise £36,000 since March, and now has £14,000 to go before she can book in the surgery.

If the operation is successful, it's possible that Poppy may be able to conceive in future – but sufferers often find it difficult to carry a baby.

'If she has kids she wouldn't be able to give birth naturally. She would need to be induced and have a Caesarean,' Ms Wadsworth explained.

'We will cross that bridge when we get there.

'She never gets upset. It's almost like she already knows what her future will be.

'We might be watching something on TV, like Corrie, where one of the female characters is desperate for a child.

'And she'll say, "Why don't they just adopt? I'll adopt when I'm grown up".

'She's very positive. She says that when she has the op she will be able to do everything that any other little girl can do.'

To donate visit JustGiving.com/Alison-Wadsworth.

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