Caters NewsA one-year-old boy with a rare genetic condition that turns his skin yellow is already being trolled for his appearance.
Logan’s condition, Alagille syndrome, means his liver doesn’t function properly and is unable to process bile in his body. The bile is then absorbed into his skin, which causes his skin to have a yellow tinge.
Cruel trolls have compared him to a Minion, with his parents, 25-year-old Gemma Channing and 27-year-old Lloyd Webb, saying they’re reluctant to take Logan out in public as a result.
Caters NewsAs well as having a yellow hue, Logan also struggles with burning and itching of the skin. As a result of his heart and liver defects, he can’t absorb food properly and is the size of a six-month-old – despite being a toddler.
Logan’s Alagille syndrome also means his vertebra is misshapen, leaving him in constant pain and discomfort. As a result, Gemma and Lloyd have to give their son a daily dose of 10 different medications, and have spent most of his life in hospital.
The young boy’s smile inspires the couple to keep going throughout all of this, with Gemma saying: ‘He’s so happy and he’s got such a lovely, little character. He’s always shouting and giggling, he takes it all in his stride and he loves life.’
Caters NewsDespite him ‘touch[ing] the heart of everyone he meets’, cruel comments from grown adults have meant the toddler is scared of strangers, and his parents are under constant stress.
Gemma, from Devon, explained:
He’s phobic of people and that puts a lot of strain on the family. We have horrible comments and questions whenever we leave the house. Sometimes it just breaks your heart.
I always have people asking me what’s wrong with him and [saying] that I should take him to hospital because he has jaundice. We get lots of people saying negative things such as asking why he looks like a Minion and that he looks like Shrek or the Grinch.
Every time we go out as a family there’s a constant reminder about Logan’s condition. We can’t just leave the house and have a normal day out, we have to be stopped and reminded by someone about how poorly he is.
Caters NewsOne time, the family were in Sainsbury’s doing a quick food shop and ‘minding their own business’ when a woman approached their car as they were about to drive off.
She started ‘banging on the window’, with Gemma saying: ‘Rather than asking us about Logan she had called a paramedic who happened to be in the car park to assess Logan.’
The unknown woman then proceeded to tell the parents they needed to take Logan to the hospital as he was ‘clearly unwell’, and when they tried to explain his condition to her she ‘just stood there and said it if was her son she’d take him to hospital’.
Caters NewsLogan’s parents are currently raising £2,000 on GoFundMe to pay for him to travel to California to see a doctor who specialises in Alagille syndrome.
Once there, it’s hoped he will be able to undergo open-heart surgery before being put on the list for a liver transplant, despite doctors in Birmingham telling the family they ‘cannot and will not’ operate on the heart or liver as they are both ‘too poorly’.
Our thoughts are with Logan and his family as he continues fighting this awful condition.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).