Football legend Graeme Souness was shocked to learn an Inverness teen with ‘butterfly skin’ has had over 60 surgeries in a bid to help her manage the incurable condition.
Isla Grist, 15, regularly travels over 500 miles from the Highlands to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London for surgery for Epidermolysis bullosa (EB).
The rare condition, also known as ‘butterfly skin‘, causes skin to tear and bluster when touched and means Isla is in constant pain.
Former Rangers manager and Sky Sports pundit Souness is a family friend and has used his profile to raise funds for research into the condition.
Mr Souness, 70, has already raised over £1.5m for butterfly skin charity DEBRA by swimming the English Channel with Isla’s dad, Andy.
He was invited by Isla and her mum Rachael to one of Isla’s many hospital appointments, with the journey filmed by BBC News.
The family travel frequently by sleeper train – an 11-hour ‘military operation’ – as changing Isla’s dressings can take two people four hours and requires a holdall of medication, bandages and equipment.
This time a balloon was set to be placed in her airway to help expand it – as scar tissue from internal blisters has severely narrowed her throat.
Graeme Souness shocked to learn Isla has ‘had 60 surgeries’
In the BBC clip, Mr Souness greets the family in London before the trio take a taxi to Great Ormond Street.
The taxi driver insists his fare being donated to charity – saying he heard Mr Souness previously discussing EB on the radio.
Sitting down with the family, Mr Souness is shocked to learn that Miss Grist has had around 60 surgeries.
Later, he takes the family to Borough Market so Isla can enjoy some of her favourite food.
A visibly emotional Souness told BBC Breakfast reporter John Maguire: “I come from a background of sport where people talk about strong personalities and winners, and people who can dig deep.
“I have never witnessed anything like this because it [EB] is with them all the time and it’s not just the physical aspect, it’s the mental aspect.”
“Isla is bright as a button. Isla knows what’s coming down the track for her, she knows it’s more of the same.
“It’s Groundhog Day. It will be painful the next week, it will be painful the week after that.
He added:Â “We have to find some relief for them.”