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Doctors baffled by sisters' unique condition

BIZARRE PROBLEM: Kelly Foskett, top right, with Maxine and Tina and her daughter, Leanne. Picture: BARRY CRAYFORD
BIZARRE PROBLEM: Kelly Foskett, top right, with Maxine and Tina and her daughter, Leanne. Picture: BARRY CRAYFORD

A UNIQUE medical condition has left sisters of a Kent family with one kidney, one Fallopian tube and one ovary each...and doctors completely baffled.

Tina and Kelly Foskett and married sister Maxine Heggerty have one of the rarest biological conditions in the country.

Tina’s daughter Leanne, 10, also has the same rare problem and their brother Darren, 28, also has one kidney.

Kelly, 24, of Samphire Way, St Mary’s Island, Chatham, said she had been affected most by her condition. The top and bottom of her kidney is scarred and, while the others have one tube connected to the bladder, she has two.

This means that waste goes back from the bladder into the kidney and often infects it. She said: “I’ve had a lot of infections, but you have to get used to it.”

Doctors told Kelly of her condition when she was only 12, and at 18, she was told she couldn’t have children because her ovary hadn’t grown. But that is not her only problem. She also has one extra rib.

Her mysterious seventh rib is floating around inside her torso and doctors have no idea why it is there.

Maxine, 32, of Carlisle Close, Strood, was the first in the family to discover the condition, hours after giving birth to her first child, Louise.

Now 12, she had to be delivered three months early because of her mother's condition and was so premature she had transparent skin.

The third sister Tina, 30, who lives in Poplar Road, Strood, gave birth to Leanne, who has inherited the condition. Tina, a pub cleaner, said: “Thankfully, we’re both in good health, for now.”

World-renowned TV scientist Prof Robert Winston, host of BBC’s The Human Body, wanted to investigate the family for a programme five years ago. Baffled by the bizarre problem, he wanted to find the answers, but the family declined.

Kelly and Maxine’s GP, Dr Joe Brouphy, said: “I have never known anything like it before. Although I have no expertise in this condition as it is so rare, I don’t know anyone else in any other practice who has come across this problem.”

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