Disease Could Turn Girl to Stone

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - A 5-year-old girl in the UK is battling a rare disease that if not treated will turn her body into crystal.

The Daily Mail reports that Lillie Sutcliffe was born with Cysitinosis , a rare, incurable condition that affects less than one in 3 million people. She has a faulty kidney that fails to clean her blood allowing a chemical called cystine to build up in her system. If too much cystine remains in her body, her cells start to solidify and she'd "eventually turn to stone," her mother Laura Milner said.

Lillie was diagnosed with Cysitinosis in August 2006, one month shy of her second birthday. The incurable condition has stunted her growth, and she cannot walk long distances or participate in any sports.

"I had never heard of the condition so I was a bit shocked to find out what it did," Milner told the Daily Mail. "If it wasn't treated she would turn into stone eventually because it attacks all the cells."

Every day Lillie has to take multiple doses of potassium citrate, sodium chloride, phosphate solution and vitamin D just to replenish her body with nutrients. She goes to school and academically she is unaffected, but she has the body of a 2-year-old.

"She can't do normal things that other 5-year-olds do because she is so small," Milner added. "But Lillie is a real star and just gets on with it -- she is very brave."

Kidney diseases affect millions of people. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 180 million people worldwide have diabetes , and 10 to 20 percent of those will die of kidney failure.