“Both of your children have LMBB syndrome,a and you will have to live with it,” the doctors quietly told me. At that time, very little was known about this rare genetic disorder. Typical features include visual impairment leading to blindness, obesity, extra fingers and/​or toes, developmental delay, coordination problems, diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis, and kidney abnormalities. Therefore, caring for my children would be quite a challenge. A recent study estimated that 1 in 125,000 people in Britain suffers from this syndrome, though many more may have a mild form of it.