Leni forgets what she learns: Girl already has dementia at the age of two

Kent (England) – The blonde girl with the gap in her teeth smiles into the camera, her big brown eyes shining with joy. But Leni (2) will probably never be able to remember this little moment of happiness. Because soon everything she just experienced will fade away…

Not because she is so small – the two-year-old suffers from the disease that we only know from older people. Leni was diagnosed with the rare Sanfilippo syndrome – the so-called childhood dementia. Nothing can stop it, there is no cure.

She will first lose her laughter, then her life

At first everything seemed completely normal for the Forrester family from Kent in Great Britain. Leni developed like everyone else Kinderuntil at some point more and more inconspicuous symptoms appeared: frequent ear infections, sleep disorders, turned-in feet. A week before the girl’s second birthday, doctors discovered the genetic defect that changed everything.

“The news rocked our world,” mom Emily Forrester wrote on Instagram. “Leni will forget everything she has learned within a very short time. Because of this, she will disease the ability to walk, talk, play, laugh and ultimately lose their life.”

Mother terminates another pregnancy

Although there is little hope for their child, the parents do not want to give up. They are clinging to an expensive experimental treatment, financed by donations, that could halt the girl’s mental decline. “It’s every parent’s worst nightmare to find out that their child is going to die,” said the mother. Leni’s life expectancy is around 12 to 15 years.

Two weeks after the family learned of the terrible diagnosis, Emily and her husband Angus had to cope with another blow of fate. She was pregnant again – with a baby who, through a test in the third month, also had children’s birth.dementia was determined. The brave woman revealed on British television: “We had no choice but to terminate the pregnancy…”