DELLA All children hurt themselves from time to time. But when thirteen-year-old Ashlyn Blocker was younger, she had more accidents and injuries than her friends. For example, she once put her hands on a very hot engine and got a serious burn. She only knew about it when she looked at her skin. She showed her parents and they took her straight to hospital. Ashlyn simply did not know when she injured herself. 
B When Ashlyn was a baby, her parents knew she was different: she didn't cry. Then, when she was eight months old, they noticed there was some blood in her eye, so they took her to see a doctor. The doctor was shocked and confused when he looked at Ashlyn's eye: there was a serious cut. So why wasn't the baby girl upset? Why didn't she cry? The eye injury soon got better, but doctors realised that Ashlyn had a very unusual medical condition: she couldn't feel any pain.
C This condition is very rare: only about a hundred people a year in the USA are born with it, and many of them die because of it. Pain is a natural warning: when you're ill or injured, your body hurts and this tells you there's a problem. People who o can't feel pain often die young because when they break a bone or have a problem with their heart, they just don't realise.
D The first few years of Ashlyn's life were very difficult. She often tripped and injured herself. Once, she broke her ankle and didn't know so she didn't stop running. At school, Ashlyn needed a lot of attention 5 to keep her safe. For example, in the playground, one teacher watched Ashlyn all the time. When other children fell over, the teachers could ask, 'Does it hurt?' But of course, with Ashlyn, it was not so simple, and the teachers had to search for cuts, bruises or other injuries. 
E When she was five, Ashlyn's story appeared in newspapers. Then o she had invitations to appear on TV shows and became well known. Scientists studied the causes of her condition and found it was a genetic disorder. For some reason, pain signals do not reach her brain Unfortunately, at the moment, there is no hope of a cure. And as Ashlyn knows, a life without pain is both difficult and dangerous.