Seven-year-old girl born without fingers on her left hand dreams of becoming a professional gymnast – and refuses to use a prosthetic
- Millie Sinnott has Symbrachydactyly, a condition which causes short fingers
A seven-year-old girl born without fingers on her left hand dreams of becoming a professional gymnast and refuses to use a prosthetic.
Millie Sinnott has Symbrachydactyly, a congenital condition that causes abnormally short fingers.
Her upper-limb difference means she has a thumb but no palm or fingers on her left arm.
She ‘fell in love’ with gymnastics aged three and has moved up the grades at the same pace as the able-bodied students.
Millie refuses to use a prosthetic limb and can even perform cartwheels on the high beam and bars unaided.
Millie Sinnott, seven, (pictured) was born without fingers on her left hand and dreams about becoming a gymnast
Millie has Symbrachydactyly, a congenital condition that causes abnormally short fingers
She is the only student at her club with a disability and is ‘proud’ to be different.
She dreams of becoming a paralympian, but there is currently no gymnastics in the games. Millie and her mother Kathryn Sinnott, 27, are campaigning to get the sport added.
Ms Sinnott, a teaching assistant, from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, said: ‘We didn’t know until she was born about her hand, but she never lets it stop her.
‘There’s never been any pressure on her to do more or achieve more, it’s just what she wants to do.
‘She’s on her own way and she’s always amazed everyone.
‘She calls it ”thumby” and she’s really proud of it and makes jokes around it all the time.’
Doctors spotted the limb difference when Millie was born in Lister Hospital, Stevenage, weighing 7lbs and 6oz on September 11, 2015.
She got her first prosthetic from Stanmore Hospital in the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital when she was two-and-a-half years old to help her ride her scooter.
She ‘fell in love’ with gymnastics aged three and has moved up the grades at the same pace as the able-bodied students
Millie and her mother Kathryn Sinnott, 27, (pictured) are campaigning to get gymnastics added to the Paralympics
When she was three, Millie wanted to start gymnastics to do roly-polys and began in the younger group, doing acrobatics and tumbling.
She received a new prosthetic hand to help her on the bars at her gymnastic class but decided to go without.
‘They got her a prosthetic for gymnastics which was really good, but it’s taken her a long time to find out what she needed,’ her mother said.
‘She tried it for a little while but found it easier without it.’
Millie joined the older gymnastics group in 2021 to try different equipment, where she has gone from strength to strength, moving up four grades over two years.
Ms Sinnott said: ‘It’s such a passion of hers and she’s now constantly doing it.
‘Even when she hurts herself, she gets up and keeps going.’
Millie experiences pain in her thumb, which is fully formed but much thinner, unlike that of an able-bodied person.
When she does gymnastics the muscles in her thumb have to work harder and take on a great deal of extra strain.
Millie dreams of becoming a paralympian, but there is currently no gymnastics in the games. Millie and her mother are campaigning to get the sport added
Ms Sinnott said: ‘Millie is very accident prone, and she’s had a few falls.
‘Recently she was at a summer camp and she fell off the bars and fell on her left arm and hurt herself.
‘The hospital is very used to her though; she gets in a sling, and she’s sent home.’
In June Millie won the vault category in her club’s competition, where she was competing against thirty other girls.
This victory made her even more determined to go to the Paralympics, but her and her mother were shocked to find out gymnastics isn’t in the Games.
Ms Sinnott said: ‘She was really deflated. Every seven-year-old has a dream and to have it not even be a possibility is really disheartening.
‘Millie just always wants to do it the best that she can and aim as high as she can.
‘The highest she can go is the Paralympics and that’s where she wants to go.’
The pair contacted British Gymnastics to start a campaign to make gymnastics a Paralympic sport.
Millie experiences pain in her thumb, which is fully formed but much thinner, unlike that of an able-bodied person
They have been supported by the REACH charity who help children with upper-limb differences.
They have also been in contact with the Para Gymnastics Working Group and the Federation for International Gymnastics who need every country to have a gymnastics team to make it a Paralympic sport.
Millie has also received a lot of support for her campaign on social media, with her idols GB Gymnasts’ Jessica and Jennifer Gadirova liking and following her page.
Ms Sinnott said: ‘She would love to have someone to look up to and she thinks it’s amazing that there are people like her competing in sports.
‘There’s a woman’s footballer who has a limb difference which Millie saw.
‘She’s never been interested in football but then she saw her and wanted to go football training.
‘She would love to make it to the Paralympics, but past that she just wants gymnastics to be in the games.
‘Even if she doesn’t get in, she just wants little boys and girls to have the opportunity to compete.’
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