LITTLE Ellie Luther manages a brave smile - despite having a condition that affects only one child in a million.

The five-year-old suffers from an incurable skin complaint which causes the same amount of skin to grow in a night that most people grow in a fortnight.

The condition is called harlequin ichthyosis and it could prove fatal.

Usually, children who have the condition die in the womb, but survivor Ellie is defying all the odds.

She is a happy-go-lucky little girl who, like her friends, loves nothing better that to play with her favourite dolls.

She has just started a new term at school on South Tyneside - and has been so good she has received a Star of the Week award for helping her classmates.

But there is a sad side to this story of courage - some people are making cruel comments about the little girl.

Her parents say they are sick of the heartless words aimed at their daughter.

Now the couple have chosen to speak out in an attempt to end the ignorance and prejudice the family sometimes have to face.

Ellie's father, William, said: "If people know more about the condition they would understand and maybe think before coming to their own conclusions."

Her mother, Melanie, added: "We just want to make people aware of what we have to go through."

Mrs and Mrs Luther have to scrub Ellie's skin until it is red every three hours to stop it growing so rapidly.

Doctors were stunned to be told Ellie had the condition - originally known as harlequin foetus - because babies were not expected to survive beyond the womb.

Although harlequin ichthyosis is hereditary, elder sister Bethany, seven, and younger brother Riley, one, do not have it.

Last night, Mrs Luther was full of praise for her daughter.

"She's a lovely, happy little girl most of the time and loves playing with her dolls," she said.