Caters
A teenage 'Sleeping Beauty' missed nine exams after falling asleep for TWO MONTHS.
Stacey Comerford, 15, was predicted to get straight As but missed out because she suffers from a rare neurological disorder which means she enters a sleeping state for months at a time.
The schoolgirl, from Telford, Shropshire, is just one of 1,000 people worldwide to suffer from Kleine Levin Syndrome, also known as Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.
"I've missed nine exams and my birthday in November," she said.
During an episode Stacey can sleep for 20 hours a day and only gets up in a trance-like state to sip water or use the loo.
Her mum, Bernie Richards, slips in some food to keep her alive before she makes it back to bed. Stacey has lost nearly two stone because of the condition.
Stacey began experiencing symptoms around a year ago but was only diagnosed in March.
Doctors initially thought she was just being a typical moody teenager.
But Bernie said: "All she wanted to do was sleep.
"The GP said 'I know it sounds awful but she looks like a moody, depressed teenager'."
Fears then surfaced she might have a brain tumour but tests came back negative.
The diagnosis finally came when she was seen by a neurologist at Birmingham Children's Hospital.
Bernie, 53, who has five other children, said: "There's never any warning. I've even found her fast asleep on the kitchen floor.
"When she's in an episode, she might get up to go to the toilet or get a drink but she's not awake. I call it sleep mode.
"When she wakes, she thinks it's the following day. She doesn't have any memory of it."