Tansy Smethurst, the daughter of actress Rakie Olufunmilayo Ayola who plays Hermione in the Harry Potter stage play, has spent four years waking up every morning thinking she’s in France after developing severe memory loss from holiday infection.
The actress who was born in Wales to a Sierra Leonean mother and a Nigerian father, was on Holiday with her 13-year-old daughter in France when she developed spots on her body and was rushed to hospital in 2013.
According to reports, she had an emergency surgery to remove a brain cyst and later suffered a serious infection that left her with severe memory loss. After having done 12 operations, since they returned home in Greenwich, south east London.
Tansy woke up every day believing she was still on holiday in France Explaining her daughter’s condition, the 48- year-old actress told The Sun: ‘She still has memory issues, for example when we drive to see family in Wales she will ask several times on the journey where we are going.
‘There are moments when someone asks how you are and you burst into tears.’ She couldn’t even remember her hospital room. ‘Once she was up and walking she would go to the bathroom and come back and not recognise her room – even though hers was the one decorated with balloons and the room next door was empty. She had no clue.
‘I noticed one time she only identified her room because my coat was there and she remembered my coat. Even now, if something new happens she struggles. Routine is very good for her. According to her, Tansy suffers from the genetic disorder Neurofibromatosis Type 1, which causes benign tumours to develop on nerve endings throughout the body.
