A nine-year-old girl with a rare form of muscular dystrophy said she loves the adrenaline of modelling on the catwalk.
Carmela Chillery-Watson will use a frame to walk the runway at the Bristol Fashion Show on Sunday, adding she finds it “very easy” to strut in front of the crowds.
Carmela has LMNA congenital muscular dystrophy, a progressive muscle-wasting condition which affects her movement, heart and lungs – which she was diagnosed with in 2017 aged three.
But she has not let that stop her and since the age of five has been appearing at the fashion show, as well as taking part in several fundraising challenges for Muscular Dystrophy UK.
Carmela, from Devizes, Wiltshire, said modelling on the catwalk is one of her dreams and told the PA news agency: “I would love to walk a catwalk everyday.
“I love the adrenaline when I go down the catwalk.”
Sunday’s event will be her third time on the catwalk in Bristol and she added: “Not to brag, but it’s very easy for me – I don’t get nervous.”
Carmela’s mother, Lucy Chillery-Watson, 47, told PA: “[She] laps up all the attention.”
Carmela will be walking down the catwalk with her walking frame, accompanied by her assistance dog Tinker, a four-year-old toy poodle who will be sporting an orange tutu.
“I’m hoping they will do some accessible designs,” Carmela said.
“If they do, I would like to just kind of express them and make sure that other people from three-year-olds to the elderly can have this accessible fashion.”
A portion of the ticket sales from the show will be donated to Cure4Carmela, a Muscular Dystrophy UK Family Fund, which raises donations to fund research into muscle-wasting and weakening conditions.
Carmela, said her symptoms of the condition vary each day.
“Some days are hard and I can’t do anything, some days are super easy and [I am] bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,” she said.
“But then some of the days are kind of medium, sometimes it hurts and then it goes away and then it hurts and goes away.
“It does get a bit heavy but most of the time, I just carry on with it.”
Carmela suffers with a rare type of the condition, which affects “one in a million babies”, Ms Chillery-Watson said.
She said Carmela will eventually lose the ability to walk and will need to use a wheelchair full time.
“Over time as she gets into the teenage years, she will lose further muscle weakness because they’re growing and getting heavier,” she said.
“It makes anything physical very challenging, so like getting dressed, getting on and off the floor or walking upstairs.”
Since her diagnosis, Carmela and her family have been fundraising for Muscular Dystrophy UK, the leading charity for the condition which supports more than 110,000 people in the UK living with one of the 60 types of the disease.
The family have raised more than £400,000 for the charity and Carmela was presented with a BCyA (British Citizen Youth Award) Medal of Honour in October for making a positive impact on her community and wider society.
To find out more, visit the Cure4Carmela website here: musculardystrophyuk.org/get-involved/family-funds/funds/carmela
