A mother suffers from a disorder that is causing her feet to shrink.

Sophie Earl-Park, 29, has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), which is defined as a group of inherited disorders that damage the nerves outside the brain and spine.

Ms Earl-Park, who wears a size five shoe after previously being a six, has had 14 hip replacements since her birth and fractured her hip in four places while in labour with her son Bentley, now six.

She was told she had Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS), which affects the connective tissue, however, after posting a picture of her 'curling and arched' feet on a Facebook support group, a user suggested she may have CMT, in what Mrs Earl-Park describes as a 'eureka' moment. 

She said: 'I immediately Googled CMT and found I had all the classical symptoms - my legs are shaped like an upside down champagne bottle, I've got hammer toes and high arched feet, swan neck fingers (which means they're bending inwards) and I've got hip dysplasia, which is directly linked to CMT. Mrs Earl-Park said: 'It was such a relief to be diagnosed, as it's meant I've been able to do things differently.

'I've been given a wheelchair for long days out, ankle supports and I've also got a mobility scooter to get around, as my CMT is quickly progressing and it's becoming increasingly difficult and exhausting to walk.

'Living with CMT can be challenging on a day-to-day basis and being a "normal" mother to my son is hard because I can't do all the things I want to do with him in the way my peers do with their children.

'On top of all this, my feet have shrunk from a size six to a five and because my arches are so high, my feet are wide so it's a struggle to get shoes. Mrs Earl-Park was born with congenital hip dysplasia and has had 14 major hip operations since birth.

When her son was born, her hip socket fractured in four places, which caused her to need one of her many hip replacements.

Mrs Earl-Park said: 'After the hip replacement I was unable to recover at a normal speed and was made to feel silly by my consultant, but I knew there was something else pretty major going on with my body, as my legs and arms were getting weaker and weaker to the point where I struggled to even hold my son to bottle feed him. Three years later, when she was 26, Mrs Earl-Park was diagnosed with EDS.

She said: 'I joined the EDS Facebook support group and shared a picture of my curling, arched feet and asked if anyone else had the same. 

'A lady messaged me to say my feet looked like hers and she had CMT- it was a eureka moment.

'I immediately Googled CMT and found I had all the classical symptoms - my legs are shaped like an upside down champagne bottle, I've got hammer toes and high arched feet, swan neck fingers (which means they're bending inwards) and I've got hip dysplasia, which is directly linked to CMT.

'In addition, I have foot drop on both feet that requires me to walk with my legs up high in order to stop them dragging on the floor.

'Luckily my new GP had seen CMT in other patients, recognised the foot deformities and referred me to a neurologist. As soon as I walked into the consultant's room he said he knew I had CMT.