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Holly Mills was a lively teenager about to start university. But with her whole life ahead of her, she suddenly found herself in the grip of tragedy.

Within the space of just a few months, the gregarious 18-year-old had become so severely brain damaged that she was unable to move or communicate.

Eight years on, Holly has to be fed through a tube into her stomach and shows no emotion or awareness of her tragic predicament. Her days are spent in heartbreaking, silent immobility.

Holly is one of only three people still alive after developing the full-blown symptoms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (also known as new variant CJD, or vCJD) – the human form of mad cow disease.

Holly’s parents Peter and Linda, both 61, are devoting themselves to their daughter’s full-time care and to a program of daily mental stimulation, in the belief they are keeping her brain alive until a treatment emerges that will help her.

While they and their three older children live in hope of a cure for Holly, there is growing concern that another CJD outbreak may be imminent.