Even moderate playground activity left her with aches and spasms in her knees, ankles and feet.

Baffled by the symptoms, local doctors in her native Glasgow were inclined to dismiss them as growth spurts. 

Little did they know that the culprit was a regular growth spurt of a different kind - one which was to grow progressively worse during her adolescence, place limitations on her activities as a young Mum, and run the risk of leaving her significantly deformed in later life.

She and Scotland’s medical profession were unaware that she was one of the world’s very few sufferers of a rare bone disease called Melorheostosis; now known in the UK as Melo for short.

Wildly unpredictable and still with no known cause or cure today, the disease instructs the body to grow unwanted bone, which is then deposited on joints causing severe pain and deformity as it does so.

On x-rays – currently the only reliable way of detecting the disease - Melo makes affected bones look as though they’re coated with melted candle wax. In some sufferers, progression is rapid, while in others it is gradual. Attempts to remove diseased areas surgically can cause further new bone growth.

Back in Glasgow, a headstrong Michelle - intent on indulging her love of dance - continued to fight her daily battle with pain and discomfort. By the time she had reached her late teens in 1986, the pain had become even more frequent and intolerable – and the doctors more mystified. Diagnoses were conflicting, and recommended treatments ranged from podiatry and reflexology, to surgery and amputation.

Indeed, Michelle’s only periods of respite were during the two pregnancies which produced her son Tyler in 1994, and her daughter Shania two years later. In each case, hormonal change was loosely held responsible for the break from Melo pain.

Today, at the age of 32 and with her two children thankfully unaffected by the disease - Michelle still suffers terrible pain, cannot be as active with her children as she would like, and accepts that her badly affected right foot may begin to follow the norm and begin to deform.

But the knowledge that she suffers from a disease which at least has a name has been a tremendous source of comfort, and has empowered her to seek more answers.

Visits to her Orthopaedic Consultant Dr Prakash (the first medical professional to accurately diagnose her Melo condition), foot support experiments with her podiatrists, customised footwear development, nerve block treatment, muscle toning, and even discussions about pressure-release drilling into her foot, are now the everyday issues she confronts.

“Even though there’s no cure or treatment, and few people in the mainstream medical profession seem to know much about Melo, just having a name to give it is a huge relief”, she said.

“The sense of desolation which stems from unanswered questions and knowledge gaps can become as overwhelming as the pain itself, and although it would be easy to look back on 30 years of suffering with ‘why me?’ resentment, the chance to help others to avoid the same path provides huge comfort and inspiration”.

Michelle realises that she remains one of the few hundred known Melo patients in a world thought to contain as many as one million.

She also accepts, though, that until more Melo sufferers come forward with their stories, scientists and doctors will continue to struggle to establish the patterns which are pivotal to their crusade to find a cure.

Michelle can be contacted by email via the UK Association at michelle.lundie@melo.eu.com or by phone via the UK Association’s Harrogate, North Yorkshire headquarters on +44 (0) 1423 709993.