Warning for schoolgirl Megan as rare syndrome brings a brush with death

A SCOTTISH schoolgirl has been told she could die if she brushes her hair.

Megan Stewart, 13, cannot wear polyester or touch balloons at parties because any contact with static electricity could cause her brain to shut down.

She suffers from a rare condition called hair brushing syndrome, which was only discovered by her mother Sharon as she was getting her ready for her first day in Primary Six.

Doctors at Yorkhill Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow, where she spent the first year and a half of her life, told her parents they had only ever heard of one other case of the syndrome.

Mrs Stewart, 41, said yesterday: “I was brushing her hair in the living room when she flopped over and her lips turned blue.

“It was really scary. We were really shocked because we didn’t know what was happening.”

Megan, who lives with her mother and father Ian, 41, in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, was rushed to Wishaw General Hospital, where it was discovered she had hair brushing syndrome.

It’s thought the condition – about which little is known – may be a result of her birth complications.