A MOTHER has said her daughter’s rare vomiting condition is “heart-wrenching” as she bids to raise awareness for the largely unknown syndrome.

Hermione Wilkin, 11, has Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome which is thought to only impact one in every 100,000 people.

Sufferers face recurrent, prolonged attacks of severe vomiting, pain, nausea and lethargy with no apparent cause.

Vomiting persists at frequent intervals, often between five to eight times an hour at the peak, for periods ranging from hours to days or even weeks.

Jay Wilkin, Hermione’s mother who lives in Hamilton Street, Parkeston, said the condition came out of nowhere.

“She would often have what we thought were sickness bugs, often starting in the middle of the night or early morning with no warning,” she said.

“These started to become regular in September 2019; every ten to 14 days Hermione would have an episode.

“She is the eldest of three siblings and during her episode neither of her siblings would come down with it, so we thought: ‘something’s not quite right here’.

“At first the GP said it’s probably because all the kids are back to school and everyone’s got germs but then you start to think: ‘hang on a minute, it’s only been ten days and she’s being sick again’.

“It’s absolutely heart-wrenching. She will wake up early in the morning and say ‘I feel sick’.

“We will then find a bucket, tie her hair up and try to get some extra medication in her to stop it. Nine times out of ten they won’t work.

“She has already digested her food so her first vomit is always the bile from her stomach, then quickly it becomes blood and large blood clots.

“It’s scary for her to see as an 11-year-old and as a parent you’re panicking thinking ‘Where is this blood coming from? What is it doing to her insides?’.”

Hermione, who is a pupil at Chase Lane Primary School in Dovercourt, has had to shield due to being clinically extremely vulnerable to Covid-19.

Mrs Wilkin praised the “fantastic staff” at Colchester Hospital who went above and beyond to help her daughter and said Hermione now wants to raise money for the hospital’s children’s unit to say thank you