A County Durham mum has told of the agony her daughter lives with every day and being forced to sleep sitting up after being born with no burp syndrome.

Jessica Willingale, from Crook, described how Tahnee has been in pain since she was three days old.

When she was born Tahnee was very skinny and found it impossible to pass wind, as a result, she screamed for months and found it very hard to eat.

Retrograde cricopharyngeus dysfunction (R-CPD), also known as no burp syndrome, is a rare condition in which people are unable to burp or belch.

It occurs when the cricopharyngeus muscle, a sphincter muscle that sits at the top of the esophagus, is unable to relax and, as a result, does not open to allow air to exit the esophagus.

The Northern Echo: Treatment of Tahnee

Tahnee's symptoms range from stabbing pains in her throat, she has to sleep standing or sitting up and she feels horribly sick after eating.

When Ms Willingale brought her daughter back to hospital she was repeatedly told that it was hunger, colic, reflux, or silent reflux.

Tahnee is now 10-years-old and in the last two years, her symptoms have become unbearable. 

She has been booked in for surgery on June 28 which is estimated to cost £3912 and there could be follow-up operations. 

Her mother has made a plea for any donations to help with the cost of the life-changing procedure.

The Northern Echo: Tahnee and Jessica her mum

Ms Willingale said: "In the last two years her symptoms have got unbearable, she can't eat due to the stabbing pain in her throat, she has lost over 10kg in weight, her chest is tight and stomach hurts from hunger all the time.

"She gets a gurgling sensation and gas tries to come up and stops in her throat making her feel sick. She doesn't sleep and when she does she has to sleep sat up, she can't run or do any form of exercise because it hurts.

"She gets hiccups that feel like a knife is stabbing her in the chest and she farts all the time.

The Northern Echo: Tahnee trying to sleep

"She now suffers from anxiety, hates eating out and I have to carry food on me all the time so she can eat whenever she needs to. A 6-inch subway takes her 2 days to eat.

"I have never given up researching, speaking to people, and trying to get to the bottom of her pain, and in the early hours of one morning I stumbled across an article about no burp syndrome and everything fell into place.

"I then went to the doctor and said this is what she has and he had never heard of it, next I went to hospital and the paediatricians had never heard of it. So back to the internet to found how I could get her treated and I found Doctor Karagama.

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"I booked an appointment and off to Manchester we went, as soon as we saw him and explained her symptoms he was in agreement that she had no burp syndrome and booked her surgery."

You can donate to the fundraiser to help Tahnee, click here.

Any money which is not used for the surgery will go to the Bradley Lowery foundation.