Aberdeenshire schoolgirl born with rare and life threatening Pfeiffer syndrome meets her heroes The Vamps

It was the landmark birthday that doctors feared young pop fan “Happy Hannah” Thomson would not live to see.

But on Thursday, the Aberdeenshire schoolgirl – who was born with rare and life-threatening Pfeiffer syndrome – rocked up for the Ten Years of the Vamps Greatest Hits Tour at Glasgow’s Ovo Hydro – a gift to mark her own 10th birthday.

And to her surprise the band stepped up to meet her after being contacted by the Sunday Post. Lead singer Bradley Simpson, bass guitarist Connor Ball, guitarist James Brittain-McVey, and drummer Tristan Evans took time out from their soundcheck to welcome Hannah and a her family and take some souvenir photos.

The British pop band to which Hannah is devoted formed just before she was born, close to death, in an emergency caesarean at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital on December 9, 2012. She was later diagnosed with the rare genetic disorder that affects one in 100,000 children. The incurable condition causes the skull to prematurely fuse in the womb, distorting the shape of the head and face, with the risk of crushing the growing brain.

A patient of both the Royal Aberdeen Children’s and Glasgow Royal Children’s Hospitals she also suffers from hydrocephalus, a life-threatening build-up of fluid on the brain and, at just weeks old, had her first surgery with a shunt inserted to drain fluid from the organ. The shunt has been replaced several times over the years, the latest in November last year.

Thanks to medical intervention Hannah – who also needs a wheelchair and a hearing aid – was to endure more than 50 excruciating operations in her young life to combat the dangerous effects of the condition, including having her entire face deconstructed and put back together again. But she has shown such courage, smiling her way through her ordeal, that her family have named her “Happy Hannah.”

Her mother Judith Davis, 46, from Ellon, revealed Hannah now faces a further three gruelling rounds reconstructive surgery on her face, that may start as soon as next year. But she said her brave girl was over the moon to meet the boy band.

© Kenny Elrick

She told the Post: “It was amazing. The lads were lovely. Hannah was thrilled to meet them and to be at the concert. It was a great gig. She has loved the band for as long as she can remember. She’s their No.1 fan and meeting them made her birthday extra special. No one, not us or the doctors, could have envisaged a tenth birthday like this when she was born.”

There are some struggles ahead for Hannah, her mother said. The additional surgeries she requires are risky, painful and gruelling. She also has concerns over the break out of the Streptococcus A infection that through complications has since September claimed the lives of nine children in the UK.

Davis told the Sunday Post: “Hannah will potentially need three more operations on her skull to make more space room for her teeth and jaw to grow normally; one on her forehead, another on her mid-face and the third on her bottom jaw. They will be long operations, each probably more than 12 hours but they will help with her breathing, her teeth, and eyes. There is risk with each one. She will also have to have a tracheostomy (a tube inserted into the windpipe to assist breathing) and there is no guarantee that it can be reversed after the surgery because of the damage caused by scar tissue.

“When Hannah was a baby there was no choice because the surgery was to save her life. She will survive without these additional operations but the older she gets the more difficult it will be for doctors to achieve what they want to achieve safely. She will be 11 or 12 when they start the surgeries. She trusts us to make the right decisions for her but it is very hard to know what to do for the best and I am worried. I’m also concerned about the outbreak of Strep A. But Hannah has come through many procedures and infections. The whole family had Covid-19 at Christmas 2020, before vaccinations, and Hannah sailed through that.”

Davis smiled: “Overall life is good. We have moved into a fully disabled adapted house which makes life much easier, and Hannah now has a motorised wheelchair that she uses at school. It gives her a lot of freedom at playtime with her friends. Oldmeldrum Primary is an amazing mainstream school that has an enhanced provision unit, and she loves it. She’s doing well there. Hannah’s problem is her body, not her brain.”

The family that includes dad Phil, 52, sister Rebecca, 18, and brother Keiran, 6, are now looking forward to Christmas. Just like Hannah, they’ve learned to find joy in the things most others take for granted. And like the title of The Vamps’ 2014 upbeat tune, they have “High Hopes” for the future.