A 12-year-old girl was diagnosed because of a progressive weakness with a condition known as Friedreich's ataxia, a progressive condition causing weakness, unsteadiness and inco-ordination with a chance of developing a cardiomyopathy (a weakness of the heart muscle). When discussing the diagnosis with the parents, I asked what they had told the young girl, who was a bright kid at a Grammar School. They said they had told her nothing at all-after all it would be totally inappropriate to tell a 12-year old she had “a terrible condition which was going to shorten her life”, I explained to them that the 12 year old was already having physiotherapy, she knew she had a problem; she was having blood tests and imaging and what was it they thought she thought she had? They told us she thought she just had some form of un-coordination and that was all they wanted her to know.