Little girl who couldn’t eat celebrates Easter Sunday birthday with lots of chocolate

A little girl who couldn’t eat for years due to a throat condition is celebrating her birthday today, by tucking into her favourite food - chocolate.

Poppy Nesbitt, who turned eight on Easter Sunday, was born with congenital esophageal structure (CES), a condition which causes the narrowing of her food pipe, made it impossible for her to eat most foods.

For a long time, she had to stick to a limited diet of easy to swallow foods, but after a major surgery to widen her throat, her birthday will be extra special this year as she indugles in her favourite food.

With her birthday falling on Easter Sunday this year, it’s a double celebration for Poppy, hopefully filled with chocolate and birthday cake.

Proud mum Helen Nesbitt, 46, said: “Before she had the big surgery all she could have was yoghurt, ice cream, melting crisps and some finely grated cheese - but now, she eats so much.

“She’s got such an opinion on what she likes. She loves a roast dinner with Yorkshire puddings, pizza, pasta and most of all she loves chocolate. It has to be Cadbury’s though. She doesn’t like cheap novelty chocolate and she can tell straight away. Her favourite is Cadbury’s fruit and nut, which is unusual for an eight year old. She knows chocolate so well, when she sees the colour purple she goes nuts.

“There was once a time she wasn’t able to eat more than a few small crumbs of her birthday cake, but now she can have all the chocolate she wants. After not being able to eat for so long, it took her a long time to be able to get used to stuff but now she lives a normal life and isn’t majorly impacted.”

Poppy’s treatment: Poppy lives in Bolton, but has been treated at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. She was diagnosed with CES in October 2016, and has since had seven surgeries.

Back in 2019, her mum launched a fundraiser for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, and Ronald McDonald House — a ‘lifeline’ charity that provided them with ‘home from home’ accommodation. The fundraiser was “a huge success”, with over £10,000 being collected for the causes.