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Teenage girl forgets entire life after brain disease wipes her memory | Daily Star LOST CHILDHOOD: Rosie Paley uses photos of her childhood to regain her memory [CATERS ]

Rosie Paley did not even recognise her mum Helen when she woke up.

She was 16 when she was struck down by the rare disorder encephalitis that causes the brain to swell and brings on memory loss.

Rosie, from Brierley Hill, West Mids, who suffered a series of seizures before her mind went blank, also saw brothers Rhys, four, and Ollie, two, as strangers.

Her favourite food, her childhood and a love of horses and music were also a mystery to Rosie who is now 19.

“I don’t remember anything and I get frustrated easily. I couldn’t remember my friends or anything”

Rosie Paley

But she is piecing her life back together by using photos, stories and Baa, a toy lamb she first had when she was a tot.

Rosie, who wants to be a hairdresser, said: “I don’t remember anything and I get frustrated easily. I couldn’t remember my friends or anything.

“I just have to take day by day. I have to have a routine otherwise it throws me. “When I look at pictures I can see I had an amazing childhood – I just wish I had memories to go with the pictures.

“I’ve lost all my childhood friends as I can’t recognise them or reminisce about old times. So it’s hard to be around them as they knew the old me.”

Rosie had enjoyed a day with her boyfriend when she collapsed in August 2011. She had just finished her GCSEs and gone to her school prom.

Helen, 36, said: “Rosie woke up and looked at me with a blank expression and said: ‘Who are you?’

“I was heartbroken and terrified. I thought she’d never remember me.”