Telford teenager Stacey has real-life Sleeping Beauty bug

At first doctors thought Stacey Comerford was just a typical teenager when she lacked energy and kept falling asleep.

But when she began nodding off for up to TWO?MONTHS, tests found she had a rare syndrome which medics have only just explained.

The 15-year-old, from Telford, slept through her birthday and nine exams including GCSEs because of the rare 'Sleeping Beauty' condition.

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Stacey suffers from Kleine-Levin Syndrome which leaves her sleeping for weeks at a time as life passes her by. She has recently come out of one of her longest episodes which carried on for two months.

Stacey is just one of 1,000 people in the world to suffer from the sleeping disorder.

She had been predicted straight As in her GCSEs, but only managed an attendance rate of 30 per cent this school year because of her condition.

Her mother Bernie Richards, 53, said: "There's never any warning. I've even found her fast asleep on the kitchen floor.

"When she's in an episode, she might get up to go to the toilet or get a drink but she's not awake. I call it sleep mode. When she wakes, she thinks it is the following day. She doesn't have any memory of it."

During one of these episodes Stacey can be in a deep sleep for more than 20 hours a day. She has also lost almost two stone due to the condition.

Ms Richards, a full-time mother-of-six, said it like 'living with Jekyll and Hyde'. She said: "Stacey needs reassurance during an episode. It's like she reverts back to being five years old. When she talks, she sounds like a child."

Stacey started experiencing symptoms about a year ago, but she was only diagnosed in March as the condition is so rare.

When her illness first emerged, doctors put it down to her being a 'moody teenager'.

Ms Richards said: "Stacey was tired all the time. She couldn't concentrate at school.

"She would come home zonked out and have to sleep the whole weekend. When it came to Monday morning, I couldn't wake her up. Then I got a call from school to come and pick her up because she wasn't well.

"I took her to our GP. All she wanted to do was sleep. The GP said: 'I know it sounds awful but she looks like a moody, depressed teenager'."

Stacey was referred to Telford's Princess Royal Hospital, where doctors feared she had a brain tumour. She was given a brain scan and was also checked for conditions like narcolepsy and epilepsy.

When the results came back clear, doctors were left baffled until a neurologist at Birmingham Children's Hospital eventually diagnosed Stacey with Kleine-Levin Syndrome.

Ms Richards, said: "Having a diagnosis means Stacey knows it is not all in her mind. She's had that much stick off people. They don't understand.

"We try and laugh and joke about it because it is the only way to get through it."

There is no known cure for Kleine-Levin Syndrome, although some experts believe that some sufferers do grow out of it.

Since her diagnosis, Stacey has been put on a high doses of a stimulant drug called modafinil to help keep her awake.

Ms Richards, said: "It seems to be working. She's more awake and it is improving her quality of life."

Stacey, who hopes to go back to school on a part-time basis, said: "I've missed nine exams and my birthday in November.

"It is easier now people know what it is. It is easier to explain to them, before, people didn't believe me – that was the hardest thing.

"People would pull faces at school if I said I was tired and needed to go home."

Kleine-Levin Syndrome is a disease of adolescence and sometimes will begin after an infection or illness.