Hayley Okines

Who is Hayley Okines?

Hayley Okines is a girl with the extremely rare aging disease known as progeria. She is known for spreading awareness of the condition. Although the average life expectancy for sufferers is 13 years, Hayley is part of a drug trial that has seen her beat the doctors' predictions, and she is still alive and well.

Diagnosed in 1999, at 2 years old, Okines was born with progeria, a genetic disease that causes her to age eight times faster than the average person. This put her projected lifespan at thirteen years. She frequently travels to Boston to receive new treatments in the United States. In 2012, an autobiography of Hayley Okines was published titled Old Before My Time. The book was co-authored by Hayley Okines, her mother Kerry Okines, and contributor Alison Stokes.

Hayley lives in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, with her mother Kerry, her father Mark, and younger siblings Louis and Ruby.