LITTLE Stephanie Brown has met four youngsters who raised money to support children just like her.

One-year-old Stephanie is covered from head to toe in spots due to a condition called diffuse cutaneous mastocytosis (DCM).

After her story was featured in the Examiner, four youngsters decided they wanted to raise some money to support children with DCM.

Longwood sisters Hannah and Kate Riley and Slaithwaite sisters Alicia and Louisa Mansaf organised a bun sale and raised £110.

The money will go to the UK Mastocytosis Support Group, which provides support for people with the condition.

And yesterday Hannah, Kate, Alicia and Louisa finally got to meet Stephanie.

Karen Riley, mother of Hannah and Kate, said: “They are all proud of what they’ve achieved.

“They were really excited to meet Stephanie because they’ve done all this fundraising and now they get to see who will benefit.

“They have already received thank you cards from the support group and from Stephanie, but they really wanted to meet her.

“It’s the first time they’ve done anything like this before, but they’re taking it all in their stride.”

The girls all said they hoped this would be the first of many fundraising activities and hope to continue to support the DCM Support Group as well as other charities.

Hannah, 11, and Alicia, 13, are both pupils at Colne Valley High School.

Nine-year-old Kate goes to Golcar Junior School and Louisa, 11, attends Wilberlee Junior School, Slaithwaite.

The girls played with little Stephanie when they met her and heard about the condition from her mother Maria Brown.

Earlier this year Stephanie’s mother Maria, of Mirfield, spoke out about the rare condition after people feared they would catch something from the playful toddler.

Stephanie is one of only four children in the UK with the rarest form of the condition, although many thousands have some form of it.

Maria, an administration and finance officer for Kirklees Council, said it was heartbreaking that people would walk away from Stephanie.

She is now raising more awareness of DCM – and the fundraising efforts of the four youngsters will only help.

DCM is a condition which produces too many mast cells – blood cells formed in the bone marrow to aid in fighting off infection and illness.

When they go into overdrive to protect skin from harm they produce little spots, with itching the main symptom.

There is currently no cure for mastocytosis, but there are a number of medicines to help treat the symptoms.

Visit www.ukmasto.co.uk for more information or to support the group.