Rouge Gene

This programme follows the surgeons of the Oxford Craniofacial Unit and their young patients with rare genetic syndromes. Finley has Apert syndrome, a tiny mutation in one gene that has had a radical effect on his bone growth, distorting his skull, hands and feet. He needs surgery to remodel his constricting skull, but operating so close to the brain brings its own risks. Ollie Cartright is 13; he has Pfeiffer syndrome and has needed a long series of operations. The unit is his second home; until the age of six or seven, he was in hospital most of the time. His friendship with his neurosurgeon Jay Jayamohan keeps him going through a new series of operations. Emma Campbell was a child patient at the unit; she has Apert syndrome. Now she has become the unit's first patient with Apert syndrome to become a mother. Her baby daughter Chloe begins treatment at the unit. 'People with Apert syndrome have often been seen as freak or mutant,' says Dr Anne Gorieli, 'but we need to completely rethink this. They just have one tiny spelling mistake in a gene which is different from yours.'