 CONNOR Marsden is known as the butterfly child. He is unable to eat and if there is a breeze, he cannot venture outside. In short, he must be treated with absolute delicacy. Connor, six, suffers from the rare condition Epidermolysis Bullosa. His skin constantly sheds and tries to regrow, leaving his body covered in painful sores and blisters. The disease Connor suffers from is the same as that which affected Jonny Kennedy whose brave, but ultimately unsuccesful, battle with EB was featured in a C4 documentary last night called The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off. Connor does not have a normal life expectancy and is vulnerable to conditions such as cancer. If he eats, his oesophagus will blister. If he goes outside in the wind, his eyes will blister. There are times when he is in so much pain from blisters on his feet that he is unable to walk. He is fed through his stomach, connected to a machine which ensures he receives sufficient nutrients. Connor's parents, Catherine and Allan, spend several hours every day changing his bandages which protect the sores covering his body. Catherine, from St Helens, describes how she had a completely normal pregnancy. All of the routine tests showed a healthy baby. But when Connor was born at Warrington Hospital, he had no skin on his left leg and foot. She explains: "His leg just looked like a blister and an open wound. Both of his hands were also like open wounds. We were absolutely devastated. We had thought we were having a normal healthy child and we just could not understand what was wrong with our baby. We were worried we would lose him. "The hospital was also unable to tell us what was wrong as I don't think they had seen anything like this before. "Connor was immediately put into special care. I was constantly crying with worry and I would not leave Connor's side." | 
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