ITV Emmerdale’s Laura Norton fights back tears over children’s health update amid rare condition

Emmerdale actress Laura Norton has been given an important update on her children’s health as they both battle a rare condition.

During last month’s episode of ITVBe’s Drama Queens, Laura, who plays Kerry Wyatt on the ITV soap, gave viewers a glimpse into her life before returning to the show after her maternity leave. Laura has two children Jesse, three, and Ronnie, almost 18 months, with fiancé Mark Jordon, who co-starred alongside her, playing Daz Spencer.

Both of the couple’s infants were diagnosed with Usher syndrome, a rare genetic disease that affects both hearing and vision. In an emotional moment, Laura said: “When Jesse was born, he was very quickly diagnosed with hearing loss, which was a bit of a shock and then I had what I thought was a routine appointment with the paediatrician and she explained to me that this thing had shown up in him called Usher syndrome, which I had never heard of before.

“I’ve been told not only has he got hearing difficulties, and he will have for the rest of his life, but he’s going to lose his vision. So obviously, yeah…” Laura then fought back tears as she composed herself, adding: “So yeah, that was a bit of a blow to say the least! I was six months pregnant at the time, with the pregnancy, obviously, I wanted to know if the same thing was going to happen to Ronnie.”

But the actors had some important news after the kids underwent some test as a teaser for the latest episode was released. Laura and Mark were told by the medic: “They both have perfect vision. They’ve got 20/20 vision. From a sight perspective at the moment, they’re perfect. I want you to enjoy them, and put this to the back of your minds.”

Overwhelmed Laura said: “It was just so amazing to talk to Maria and to get those results and find out they’ve got 20/20 vision. It’s going to be nice going home with a good feeling.” Mark, who sat alongside her as they were told the results, said it was “excellent news” for the family.

He posted on Instagram: “Grateful to Drama Queens for helping raise awareness for the condition our children have, usher syndrome. Very proud of the incredible strong women to many to fully list like jomilne10 and @mariyamoosajee who are guiding our journey of discovery into the condition but the strongest of all is my partner @laura_norts.

“She’s taken on so much yet never stops bringing sunshine into our children’s lives. Usher syndrome needs to be talked about more , every person we’ve spoken to or met who is also touched by usher has given us the drive to raise awareness. There is no cure , until we find one , together.”

Laura said ahead of Drama Queens airing: “I’d never heard of it until Jesse was diagnosed with it at one and a half I think. It’s a rare genetic condition that both of my children have, both have hearing loss, both will lose their vision.

“We made the decision to throw ourselves in at the deep end. We would regret it if we missed a huge chunk of time to help them and other people. It was that thing of: ‘We’re in the public eye, we can use this for good.’ The fact that people hadn’t heard of it – already within a year I feel like there’s been a bit of a change.”