Darlington mum worries about future of sons who have haemophilia
The pair have the rare condition that affects the blood's ability to clot
A mum from Darlington says she worries about the future of her two sons who have a rare condition.
Nine year-old Ollie and seven year-old Harry both suffer from haemophilia, which affects the blood's ability to clot.
They are both football mad and play for Darlington Railway Athletic Club.
Their mum, Charlene, said: "Ollie has been in and out for this past year with his ankle. It just wasn't healing, it just wasn't repairing itself so that's the reason why he's had to have his surgery. In-between this time Harry took a headbutt during football and within seconds he had this huge haematoma on his cheekbone.
"Injuries happen and this was so frequent that Ollie was going all over on his ankle during football training and even catching goals his wrists hurt. He's having constant joint pain.
"Harry's absolutely obsessed with the Army. He's always told us he wants to fly Army aeroplanes and we don't have the heart to tell him that they're not allowed to join the Army, so we'll approach that as they get older. They're going to have to learn to live with this condition.
"Right now I'm not worried day-to-day about them because I'm looking after them, I'm making sure they're OK but when they start to off and venture by themselves I just don't know what the future looks like, but it's whether or not they're going to act appropriately when I'm not around, which really, really worries me.
"They're only going to become more active and what this last year has shown me is that the more active they are, the more accidents that are occurring, so I do worry about their future."
Their dad Jamie is also set to take on the national three peaks challenge at the end of November and is raising money to enhance the care provided to children living with Haeomphilia.
Jamie says he wants to try and finish it in 24 hours.