Chris Branagan and his seven-year-old daughter Hasty are on their way to the doctors.

We drove there in the car and we're chatting, you know, and having fun.

It's a quick pit stop before the big family camping trip he's been planning for months.

And I got there expecting to be sort of asked, you know,

how's things going, any updates, how's Hasty speaking?

A routine checkup, like the ones they had every year.

But instead I walked in and said, I don't know what confirmed you know that Hasty has CDLS.

A life-fretting genetic illness with no treatment or cure.

To be called by surprise on a Thursday morning and told that your daughter has this really rare genetic condition,

which means that it's life shortening, that it's life limiting.

You know, the ground opened up underneath me and just swallowed me.

Chris is now face of an incurable disease that robs children of their independence before they hit puberty.

And a choice. Does he fight to reimagine his daughter's future or accept her decline as inevitable?

I'm Ian Wright and this is Everyday People.

Before we start this first episode, I want to explain why I'm doing this podcast.

When I was a kid I had a difficult childhood, a difficult time at school, I wasn't happy,

but then I met someone who changed my life.

His name was Mr. Pigden. He was an extraordinary man working in an ordinary school in South London.

And for some reason Mr. Pigden took me under his wing. He talked me about football and passing and how to score beautiful goals.

I wouldn't have become a football effort, it wasn't for Mr. Pigden.

I wouldn't have made history at Arsenal and I definitely wouldn't be sitting here talking to you today.

Mr. Pigden was so important to me, but when I was in my 20s we lost touch.

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