On Sunday, Esther Tysall shared her and her daughter Olivia’s story with the Mail on Sunday. Afterwards, she said ‘I just wanted to thank you for putting such a great piece together for the Mail on Sunday – Olivia has been absolutely overjoyed with it, it’s all been a wonderful experience for her!’
Esther’s daughter Olivia endured cruel taunts from playground bullies and would come home in floods of tears – simply because she looked a bit different from the other children. In fact, Olivia, 10, suffers from a rare condition called microtia, which caused a stump to grow where her right ear should have been.
Her mum Esther contacted us because she wanted to raise awareness of her daughter’s condition. Microtia, which leaves sufferers with no ear canal and therefore only partial hearing on one side, is a rare condition which affects 7,000 babies.
Olivia had always been self-conscious about her ear and when Esther and her husband heard about the advanced surgery – where cartilage from the rib is used to construct a new ear – they knew it would make the world of difference to their daughter’s confidence. Olivia had the surgery this year and her right ear is now identical to the left one.
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