Sarah Bowdidge is fed up of being stared at, of being made to feel different, of being told she is an inspiration simply for living her life. The journalist and communications worker from Bridgend just wants to lead as normal a life as she can, and promote conversations and understanding around disabilities - and she says she now feels ready to share her story.
“When I was born I was given a very low chance of surviving to my first birthday," she said. "My parents and grandparents were given pictures by the nurses as a token of remembrance. I’m now 22 and I’m pretty sure I’m the only person living in Wales with TAR syndrome,” she told WalesOnline, sitting outside a small coffee shop speaking expertly about her condition and its challenges in a particularly busy Bute Park in Cardiff.
Thrombocytopenia-absent radius syndrome, or TAR syndrome, is a rare condition characterised by low levels of platelets in the blood and an absence of the long, thin bones in the forearms, resulting in noticeably small arms. So little was known about the condition when Sarah was born in 1999 that nurses had almost given up on her at birth.
