A very warm welcome today to Emma Vardy to talk about Pearl Buck's The Child Who Never Grew, a memoir. I'm releasing it this week because this week on 28th of June, it is International PKU Day. As you will find there is a lot to think about in terms of phenylketonuria and also the fact that eventually, after the end of this book, and and and when science had advanced, Pearl S. Buck's daughter, Carol, who she writes very movingly and beautifully about in this book, was recognized to have PKU. In a time when nobody really knew about it, nobody knew about low protein diets, there weren't the drugs, and the outcomes for children with PKU was incredibly, incredibly different to how it is at the moment.

Many of us have heard of PKU. We think of it as an autosomal recessive condition. We know that it's tested for in the newborn blood spot test. We know that it's something to do with protein. And every so often you pick up a can of a fizzy drink and it says "a source of phenylalanine" and we think, "oh, what's all that all about?" I hope that not only might I persuade you to read The Child That Never Grew and and to think about Pearl's experiences, and but also hoping my conversation with Emma will give you some really good going accidental CPD on the subject of PKU.

https://www.espku.org/2026/05/04/international-pku-day-2026-breaking-the-silence-on-mental-health-in-pku/