BRUSHING your hair, getting dressed and even turning on a tap are everyday tasks for most of us, but for Emma Ransom they're a huge challenge and sometimes a mighty win that makes her day.
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The Tamworth teenager suffers a debilitating disease that has seen her put in plaster casts an incredible 136 times, miss a year at school and have to learn to walk four times over.
Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease is an inherited genetic disorder that affects the peripheral nervous system.
It touches about one in every 2500 Australians and primarily affects the hands, feet and limbs, with CMT sufferers experiencing prolonged weakness in these areas which makes even the simplest of tasks extremely taxing.
Emma's now on a mission to raise awareness of CMT, starting a Facebook page and last month spearheading a social media campaign that coincided with CMT Awareness Month.
She wants to make people aware that getting through even the most mundane of chores and tasks can be a feat in itself for sufferers.
Emma has even come up with her "12-spoon" theory to help her each day the spoons represent how many bite-sized physical tasks she can complete in one day without suffering severe pain and fatigue the next.
Emma's mother, Suzanne Ransom, first noticed her daughter's affliction when she was two, after Emma would consistently fall down while walking.
Eye and blood tests eventually confirmed her CMT diagnosis.
Specialists noticed Emma had a limp at age six, which led doctors to discovering her hips weren't properly formed as a result of the CMT, the first diagnosis of it in the hips in Australia.
Since then, Emma has had three operations and endured 136 plaster casts.
Mrs Ransom is proud of her daughter's resilience, saying she has "learnt to walk four times in her life and missed over a year of school and maintains top grades despite this".
Emma credited the love and support of her family as crucial in the management of her illness.
Her school is also providing ongoing support, allowing her to use an iPad and co-ordinating all of her classes on one floor.
Donating her time to research trials and surveys, including a trial on CMT's effect on sufferers' mental health, Emma is keen to pass on as much information as possible to ensure "nobody else has to go through what [she has]".
She started the Facebook page, Raising Awareness for C.M.T, and is encouraging people to post pictures of themselves in something blue with the hash tag #Photoof youinblueforCMT.
Meanwhile, Emma continues to try and lead a normal 15-year-old's life, and is looking forward to going for her learner driver's licence soon.
She and her twin brother, Jake, who doesn't suffer from CMT, are aiming to get their licences on the same day.
She's having sessions with physiotherapists and occupational therapists now in an effort to get to a point where she can do that.
But if she can't, Mrs Ransom said they would pursue driving options with hand controls to ensure Emma could continue her path to independence.
