Teen who lived life in a plastic bowl, dies on Christmas Day

A teenage girl who spent her life being carried around in a plastic bowl because her body stopped growing when she was a baby has died.

Tragic Rahma Haruna became famous around the world after a picture of her being carried by her 10-year-old brother was shared online.

Photographer Sani Maikatanga, who took the photo, shared news of the 19-year-old's death.

He wrote: "Rahma Haruna a 19 years old girl has passed away on Sunday 25th of December 2016. May Almighty grant her Jannatul Firdaus (Paradise) ... amen (sic)."

Rahma, from Kano, northern Nigeria, appeared to be a healthy baby, but she was born with a mystery condition which meant her body stopped developing, even though her head grew to the size of a normal teenager's.

The teen lived with her family in the village of Lahadin Makole, close to Kano in Nigeria.

Contending with chronic pain, she was practically immobile and spent most of her waking hours in a plastic bowl, which her family transported her around in.

Her mother Fadi said: "From six months when she learnt how to sit that was when it began. She didn't learn how to crawl.

"She started with a fever and that was it. Then stomach pains. Then her body parts like hands and legs. She cannot use any if the ache strikes."

For much of her life Rahma's family would carry her in her bowl, with her brother Fahad taking her into Kano each day to beg for handouts. However, last year a journalist, Ibrahim Jirgi, gave the family a wheelchair.

The Haruna family experienced an upturn in their fortunes when local freelance photographer Maikatanga shared images of Rahma on social media, which prompted an inundation of requests from strangers who wanted to help in any way they could.

Despite her severe disability, Rahma had entrepreneurial ambitions: "I want to start a business," she said in July this year. "A grocery store and anything people buy, that is what I want."

- With Telegraph UK