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The daughter of the famous French-Canadian choreographer, Francesca, has had Rett syndrome since birth. What is this disease that causes mental disability in very young children? Answers.
In 1999, Jean Marc Généreux, a French-Canadian choreographer, became a father for the second time. But her daughter, Francesca, is rapidly showing signs of regression. The latter has Rett syndrome, a rare genetic disease that develops almost exclusively in young girls.
The disease developed from the first months of the girl
While experiencing the happiness of being a father for the second time, Jean Marc Généreux and his wife France discovered that their little girl, Francesca, was suffering from a serious genetic disease.
“She is developing quite well from 0 to 9 months but France realizes that at times she does not react. After 24 months, there is a beginning of regression. In the space of three years, Francesca returns to a mental age and a dexterity of a child of 9 months, had told the dancer. She then lost her speech. There was then no longer any way to communicate, she withdraws into herself and the diagnosis falls, it is Rett’s syndrome“, explains the ballroom dancer.
Significant psychomotor retardation
This disease of genetic origin – which affects 1 in 10 to 15,000 births – is characterized by a serious and global developmental disorder of the central nervous system. It causes severe motor impairment.
At first, sick children have practically normal psychomotor development (they walk, begin to speak, etc.) then a rapid regression occurs between the ages of 1 and 4 years.
Significant psychomotor retardation, seizures, sleep disturbances, rigidity of the limbs, manifestations of self-mutilation and repetitive hand movements then appear.
A little later, we also observe a loss of walking.
For Jean Marc Généreux and his wife France, already parents of a little boy, the confrontation with the disease is very painful.
“It’s hard to say but Francesca, my daughter, has never spoken except with her eyes, confided Jean Marc Généreux, I cried for days, weeks. We still had shows planned in the United States, I canceled everything. It was hell. And then, little by little, I said to myself that Francesca had not asked to come to earth. Now that she was here, she needed a strong, supportive father. I got back up. When I hear this question: “Do you prefer a boy or a girl?, I feel bad. Me, I just wanted a healthy child.”
Now a teenager, Francesca – nicknamed “Cocotte” by Jean Marc Généreux and his wife – makes her family happy and appears regularly on her Instagram account.