Emmerdale’s Laura and Mark Jordon shared sweet family snaps of their two sons on Tuesday after revealing they both have the rare genetic condition Usher syndrome.
The engaged couple posted on Instagram the adorable photos of Ronnie, four months, and Jesse, two, amid a busy family life.
Usher syndrome is a rare genetic disease that affects both hearing and vision, requiring both children to wear hearing aids for the rest of their lives and possibly experiencing vision loss into their teens.
In recent posts, Jesse looked adorable as he stood in their lounge and took on some arts and crafts — while other snaps showed him at his second birthday party.
He looked like he was having a good time blowing out his candles and holding a silver 2 balloon.
Adorable: Emmerdale’s Laura and Mark Jordon shared sweet family snaps of their two sons on Tuesday after revealing they both have the rare genetic condition Usher syndrome
Sweet: The engaged couple took to Instagram to post the adorable photos of Ronnie, four months (pictured above) and Jesse, two, amid a busy family life
Fun: In recent posts, Jesse looked adorable standing in their lounge doing some crafting – while other snaps showed him at his second birthday party
Meanwhile, recent snaps of Ronnie showed him looking adorable in his baby suit as he faced the camera.
Laura captioned the adorable image: “4 months old today and pretty happy about it!”
Admitting that she was “in tears” at the thought of something wrong with her children before she learned of the condition, Laura this week shared how she is coping with the health setback and adjustment.
In a new interview with Hello! magazinethe couple, who met on the set of Emmerdale in 2014, spoke out about the situation for the first time.
Laura is known for playing Kerry Wyatt in Emmerdale and meeting her fiancé, who played PC Phil Bellamy on the Heartbeat series, when he briefly joined the soap cast as Daz Spencer.
They often share a glimpse into family life with their two little ones via social media, but keep the diagnosis, which they first suspected in 2021, a secret.
Speaking to Hello!, the couple admitted that the young children don’t yet know about their condition, but as parents, they felt willing to talk about it publicly to help others.
“We’ve been agonizing about doing this before we’ve even told our kids about their condition…we’re going to write them a letter to explain why we did this and show them when they’re old enough to understand” shared Mark.
Difficult: Usher syndrome is a rare genetic disease that affects both hearing and vision, requiring both children to wear hearing aids for the rest of their lives
Party: He looked like he was having a good time as he blew out his candles and held a silver 2 balloon
Cake! He also enjoyed a birthday cake after blowing out his candles in the recently uploaded family snaps
Play: The second birthday party for Jesse was in full swing as they played with family and friends
The couple first worried there could be health issues shortly after the birth of son Jesse in 2021, when he failed standard hearing tests.
When further tests confirmed something was wrong with his hearing, Laura explained she was deeply concerned there was a problem, sharing: “My intuition told me there was a serious problem and I was in tears at the thought to it. ‘.
Laura and Mark only found out it was Usher syndrome when they were expecting second child Ronnie – when they were told during a medical assessment that they both carried the gene that causes the condition.
“Knowing that we had passed this on to our son was heartbreaking,” said Laura, who was later told her children will develop night blindness in their teens, before loss of peripheral vision and tunnel vision.
She continued, “It was painful to watch our little boy enjoy the world around him, knowing that so much will be taken from him.”
Jesse now wears a hearing aid and Mama Laura explains that with the help he can “hear planes in the sky before we can.”
While it was bittersweet to welcome their daughter Jesse last year and went through the same issues she was also diagnosed with, the couple admitted they at least knew what to expect the second time around.
While also being happy that their two children will have each other, rather than dealing with the condition on their own.
Looking to the future, the couple now hopes to raise awareness and help others with children who are suffering.
Mark is taking a stand and is even going to parliament this week to lobby MPs to highlight Usher Syndrome and campaign for funding.
Journey: Admitting she was ‘tears’ at the thought of something wrong with her children before she learned of the condition, Laura this week shared how she is coping with the health setback and adjusting
Looking Ahead: The couple now hopes to raise awareness and help others with children who are suffering
There are three types of Usher Syndrome that you can suffer from. Individuals with type 1 have severe hearing loss or deafness at birth, balance problems, and are likely to lose night vision by the age of ten.
Type 2 usually means babies have moderate to severe hearing loss in early childhood, but their balance is not affected.
Type 3 sees normal hearing at birth, with loss beginning in childhood. Types 2 and 3 see the loss of night vision by teenage years.
There is currently no treatment for Usher syndrome, with the aim of catching it as early as possible.
