'Our daughter is a baby living in an adult's body and we have no idea why'
Mia is fourteen but has the mental age of a much younger child of around six months after being diagnosed with chronic epilepsy as a child, with doctors unsure what caused it
A father has spoken of his sadness how his teenage daughter with the mental age of a baby will never 'go to university, be married or grow up' thanks to an unknown condition.
Parents Chris and Emma Connor grew concerned for little Mia when they realised she was missing milestones growing up. Over her first Christmas she was taken to hospital for tests and diagnosed with chronic epilepsy, but since then the exact nature of her condition has remained a mystery. Now doctors say the 14-year-old has the mental age of a baby aged between six and nine months - with no clue as to what caused it.
Chris told WalesOnline: 'It was a very difficult time, but beyond that was realising Mia was not going to grow up as normal.
'We suddenly realised, she's not going to uni, she's never going to a ball, never going to be married, never going to have her own children, everything you'd hope and expect for your child – none of that is going to happen for Mia.
'It took me quite a while to accept. I just couldn't understand – I'd think to myself, what's the point of Mia? What is she giving to society?
"But when you get through to her and when you see her smile – everybody feels it. And in time I've come to realise that that is Mia's job - to make people happy.
'The cause of Mia's problems are still unknown. They've found no genetic markers. Lots of studies have been done and they've found nothing. She's now going through the SWAN clinic in Cardiff in a last-ditch attempt to find a reason for how she is. But I don't know if they ever will find any answers.'
Chris and Emma continue to give Mia the best life possible, and Chris runs regularly with Mia in a special adapted buggy, often through the Merthyr Mawr sand dunes near the family home in Bridgend. He is running the Brecon Carreg Porthcawl 10K for Tŷ Hafan Children's Hospice this July as they have supported his family and Mia for more than a decade.
Chris added: 'Our family has never been able to help us and if we didn't have Tŷ Hafan, we'd have struggled massively with no support. Tŷ Hafan has definitely helped to keep our little family together and it has given us more of an existence, more of a life, with the opportunity to change to be normal and not just carers.
'Emma and me always get on better, when we stay at Tŷ Hafan. We're always that bit more giggly and better with each other.
'Mia is now quite big, and she has no sense of danger. That means every minute of every day, almost every second of every day Em and I have to look out for her.
'It's really only when we are at Tŷ Hafan that we are able to power our brains or systems down enough to properly relax because it is only there we are able to trust Mia's in safe hands.'
The parents have also had to face their own health battles, as Emma was diagnosed with cancer and Chris has mild heart problems.
James Davies-Hale, head of fundraising for Tŷ Hafan Children's Hospice, said: 'We're so grateful to Chris and everyone who will be running the Brecon Carreg Porthcawl 10K for us on Sunday, July 6.'
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DWP £441 payment due in days if you suffer from one of 57 common health conditions
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Sky News
14 hours ago
- Sky News
Diddy trial latest: Alleged victim 'Mia' challenged over social media posts
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His defence attorney Brian Steel asks Mia to confirm whether the posts and pictures show the man who she says traumatised her life. "Yes," she says. After seeing another post from January 2013, Mia is asked by Steel whether she had been sexually assaulted, or abused mentally, physically and emotionally by Combs at this point. She replies by saying "yes". When asked to explain why Combs was featuring on her social media account, Mia says "Instagram was to show how great your life is even if it wasn't true". "I had his [Diddy's] fans following me, and I didn't want my family and friends to know the misery I was in." Diddy's defence attorney begins cross-examination of Mia As Mia returns to the stand, she will now be cross-examined by one of Sean "Diddy" Combs's defence attorneys. Brian Steel begins by asking Mia whether she suffered a great deal because of Combs, and if she developed a trauma. "Yes," Mia responds to both questions. When asked whether Combs's conduct was the worst thing that ever happened to her, Mia replies "yes". She also says that, at times, she wanted to kill herself. Former assistant says she suffers from severe PTSD As proceedings get back under way, a moment to bring you from just before the break. Mia says she hasn't been able to return to work because she suffers from "severe, complex PTSD". "I would have to leave [other jobs] because I would be triggered by really normal situations with, like, an overwhelming sense of fear of being in trouble," she says . When asked who caused her to have those feelings, Mia responds by saying "Puff" – one of Combs's many former stage names. Short break Proceedings have been paused for a short break. We'll hear more from Sean Combs's former assistant, who is testifying under the pseudonym "Mia", after the break. We expect things to resume at about 4.10pm UK time. Former assistant says Combs believed she 'stabbed him in the back' by hiring attorneys Mia testifies that Sean Combs no longer wanted to be involved in Revolt Films and wanted it to shut down towards the end of 2016. The media company was founded by Combs and she worked for it as a director of development and acquisition. Mia says she felt "heartbroken" by the decision to close the firm, and avoided calls from Combs and his staff. She says she hired an employment attorney to help her obtain a severance payment and, after nine months of back and forth, she ended up with a sum of $400,000. Mia says that she took home $200,000 of that, with attorneys taking the rest as compensation for bonuses owed, severance and overtime. She tells the court that Combs believed she had "stabbed him in the back" by hiring the lawyers. As we've told you, Mia has testified that she stopped working for Combs in 2017 (see 15.18 post). Mia says Diddy became angry at her for counting his money too slowly Mia, Sean Combs's former assistant, is now asked about a trip to the Caribbean island St Barts on New Year's Eve in 2010. She says she was staying on a chartered yacht with Diddy and other members of his staff. Mia describes a moment when she was called into the rapper's room and was told to count the money in his safe, something she says was not her job. Despite doing as he asked, Mia says Combs became "really angry" and accused her of counting too slowly. "He chased me out of the room," she says, telling the jury that she ran to the third floor to hide. "I just wanted to get away from him and leave the country," she adds, but says she went back on the boat "because I felt that I had to". 'He is currently firing me at the moment': Email shows moment Diddy's former assistant was suspended Attention now turns to how Sean Combs's former assistant was suspended. Mia explains that she was suspended for oversleeping, adding that she accidentally overslept after being awake for several days. The jury is shown an email chain between Mia and another employee of Sean Combs in March 2011. In the email, Mia is asked about the handling of tickets for an event, and responded by saying "I'd totally help but he is currently firing me at the moment". She says that came after she bought the wrong workout gear for Diddy, leading to her being suspended without pay. Mia explains that she continued working for Combs until 2017, adding "I tried to run away before and it didn't work". When asked if she could get other jobs, Mia says Diddy would have destroyed her reputation. "I was scared of him," she says. 'Let's go to war': Diddy threatens to 'tell everything' in messages shown to jury The jury is shown another WhatsApp exchange, this time between Sean Combs and Mia on 31 October 2025, while she was still in South Africa. "If you don't call me now f*** it all. And imma tell everything. And dont ever speak me again. You have 2 min. F*** her. Call my [house] now or never speak to me again. F*** abc and all lawyers. Let's go to war," Diddy wrote in one message shared with the court. Mia explains that US TV network ABC had bought the rights to a comedy show she had written, but it never aired. When asked what she thought Diddy's message meant, Mia says he was threatening to tell Cassie about the times he had sexually assaulted her but "framed differently... that I had a part in it". Prosecutor Madison Smyser asks Mia what would happen if she didn't follow Diddy's instructions, to which she says she would have been in big trouble, losing her job and being emotionally or physically abused. Mia recalls 'night terrors' about Diddy and says he threatened to kill her The jury is shown a WhatsApp exchange between Sean Combs's chief of staff Kristina Khorram and Mia in October 2015. Khorram initiates the conversation and tells Mia that Diddy wants to talk to her. Mia responds by saying Diddy didn't sound right in his mind, adding that he was slurring his words, threatening her job and threatened to kill her. When asked by prosecutor Madison Smyser about how those threats made her feel, Mia says she was "desperate to make it right, terrified and sad". When Khorram asked Mia how things were going, she said she was sore, had anxiety and suffered "night terrors" about Diddy.
