‘Scared stiff’ boy starts school’

A four-year-old boy with a rare genetic condition, which can literally leave him scared stiff, is starting school.

Jacob Madgin has hyperekplexia, known as startle disease, which causes his body to overreact to shocks and make his muscles tense up.

His father Allan, from Wallsend, North Tyneside, said some seizures and spasms could lead him to choke as his throat went rigid.

Nevertheless, Jacob is starting school on Thursday.

He is attending Battle Hill Primary thanks to an improvement in his condition brought about by muscle-relaxing drugs.

The neurological disease was diagnosed when he was eight months old – being breast or bottle fed would cause him to spasm if his nose touched the teat so he had to be tube-fed.

As he got older, other incidents such as seeing a dog or horse could send him into a spasm which could stop him breathing.

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