STUDENT SLEEP FOR TWO MONTHS, Rare illness makes Lily miss birthday

STUDENT Lily Clarke is a real-life Sleeping Beauty - nodding off for two months at a time.

Lily, 21, who suffers from the rare Kleine-Levin Syndrome, has slept through university exams and Christmas and New Year. She even missed her 18th birthday party after falling asleep a few days before.

Mum Adele, 47, said the condition came on in 2007 after the family went for a meal following a day's ice-skating. She added: "Before the food arrived Lily had fallen asleep in her chair. We couldn't wake her and had to carry her from the restaurant." Lily sleeps deeply for about 23 hours a day and is woken just long enough to be fed at her parents' home in Haslemere, Surrey.

She now sleeps for an average of two months at a time roughly every seven months. Adele said: "She is missing out on huge chunks of her life. "There is no known cure for the syndrome but medics say it usually affects young people - so Lily may grow out of it.