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LONDON - Four years after the death of his infant daughter, British prime minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown has discovered his baby son is suffering from cystic fibrosis.
A spokesman for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is widely expected to succeed Prime Minister Tony Blair within a year, said Brown and his wife, Sarah, had been told in July their second son, James Fraser, may have the life-threatening condition.
"Tests since then have confirmed this," the spokesman said yesterday, adding that the child was "fit and healthy and making all the progress that you would expect any little boy to make."
Housing Minister Yvette Cooper, who is married to close Brown confidante Ed Balls, said she had seen Fraser just last week and described him as a "very bright-eyed, bouncy little boy.
"He is lovely and they are getting great treatment under the NHS (National Health Service), both in London and in Scotland," she said.
The nation mourned with the Browns when their first child, Jennifer Jane, died of a brain haemorrhage just 10 days after her premature birth in 2002.
"She died in our arms," Brown said, choking back tears in a television interview in September. "You always know that there's something missing. Two weeks ago she would have been going to school for the first time."
The couple also have another son - 3-year-old John.
Cystic fibrosis is Britain's most common life-threatening, inherited disease and affects more than 7500 babies, children and young adults, a spokeswoman for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust said.
Symptoms can include poor weight gain, troublesome coughs, repeated chest infections and salty sweat. A baby suffering from the condition has a life expectancy of about 40 years.
At present there is no cure for cystic fibrosis, but the faulty gene has been identified and doctors and scientists are working to find ways of repairing or replacing it.
Ivan, the son of Opposition Conservative leader David Cameron, suffers from cerebral palsy and epilepsy. He sent Brown a message of sympathy on hearing the news.
- REUTERS
