A young boy who can't feel any pain due to an ultra-rare condition is now asking for help to save his legs.
Zach Skitmore, nine, was just a baby when his parents, Donna, 46, and Steve, 53, suspected that he might not have any kind of pain receptor.
As a one-year-old he bit through his own tongue without realising.
Then aged four he dislocated his hip on a bouncy castle and had it popped back with no pain relief.
At six, he broke his leg and carried on walking for three days.
But the family from Norwich, Norfolk, say "while being pain-free may seem like a dream" the cruel reality is that their son can still get badly hurt without realising the full scale of the damage.
Floor layer, Steve, told The Mirror : "Alarm bells were ringing early on, we were taking him to A&E once every three or four weeks and they were looking at us suspiciously.
"When he dislocated his hip they didn't believe that he had done it because no one could sit there with a dislocated hip and not be in agony.
"They popped it back in while he was awake, without any gas and air or anything and the doctors were in disbelief.
"Although on the surface you think he's like a superhero, there are lots of things that come with it that are seriously dangerous.
"We have to check all of his food and his baths so he doesn't burn himself because he can't tell when it's too hot for him.
"We're terrified about when he goes to secondary school and other kids finding out about his condition and thinking its some kind of game to test his limits and really hurting or injuring him."
Zach's inability to feel pain is the result of an ultra-rare condition known as Congenital Insensitivity to pain (CIP), caused by two mutated genes carried by his parents.
Until Zach was diagnosed at six-years-old, the couple had no idea that they were carriers of the recessive gene - let alone that one in four of their children could be born unable to feel pain as a result.
There are only 60 documented cases of CIP in the US, and doctors have told Donna and Steve that the chances of having it are "almost a million to one".
Teacher, Donna said: "I didn't even know it was a thing until I started researching about it. It's incredibly rare.
"But this is the problem we are having, because it's so rare, most of the doctors we have seen in the UK have never dealt with this before.
"For six years I was constantly saying he can't feel pain, but no one believed me.
"I always questioned it and I had my suspicions from about the age of nine months.
"Even when he had his jabs as a baby the nurse said she had never seen a baby not react.
"If something is too hot or too painful, another child would move away, it's your natural reaction, but he doesn't have those reactions because he just doesn't know it's causing him pain.
"Superheroes can't get hurt but children with this condition can.
"He can't play football, rugby or any contact sports. We can't let him go on anything like bouncy castles or trampolines because it's just too dangerous.
"It's hard not to get upset sometimes because you want to protect your child from anything that might hurt him or cause him pain."
Zach was finally diagnosed at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge after badly breaking his leg and walking around on it for several days.
But while getting a diagnosis has provided some relief to the family in the form of answers, there is no cure for Zach's condition which has seen him cause untold damage to his own body without realising.
Zach has developed Charcot's joint, a progressive condition which can lead to infection, deformity and may eventually need amputation.
The condition is often brought on by unrecognised sprain or injury which have not been correctly treated.
Now his family have launched a GoFundMe to raise at least £50,000 to take him to the US where one surgeon is operating on Charcot's joints in CIP patients, where the NHS says it cannot help.
Having already spent £25,000 on IVF to fall pregnant with Zach, mum of one Donna and dad Steve refuse to give up on their special boy.
Steve said: "Any baby is special to any parent but Zach is particularly special to us because he's an IVF baby.
"I wouldn't change him for the world because he's such a lovely little boy but I do wish I could take this condition away for him."
Donna added: "The NHS doctors in the UK have done everything I think they know how to do but it's essentially got to the point where they're saying they can't do anything else for him and we can't just accept that.
"We'll do whatever it takes to get him the specialist treatment he needs."
