BEN reporter Joanne Rowe, the mother of one-handed daughter Imogen, explains here why Glenn Hoddle's words are so hurtful IMOGEN is a beautiful, wilful, charming, loving and often exhausting toddler. She is also my daughter and, if the likes of Glenn Hoddle are to be believed, is currently paying for the sins she committed in a previous life!

Because Imogen was born three years ago this April without a left hand, a relatively rare condition of congenital upper limb deficiency affecting around one in 10,000 children.

Imogen is a much longed for first child for my husband Alistair and I and a first grandchild on both sides of the family, but her disability was totally unexpected.

After a relatively straightforward labour, Imogen arrived, only to be immediately whisked away and brought back by midwives, who told us as gently as they could that she only had one hand. You can imagine our shock. My first feelings were grief that my little girl would never be a concert pianist - a strange thought as my own skill on the keyboards extends no further than a bad version of chopsticks - and where would she put her wedding ring?

But Alistair and I were lucky. We immediately fell in love with our beautiful, otherwise healthy baby and never once questioned why this had happened to us. Indeed we felt, and still do to this day, that we have been blessed and are privileged to have been given this wonderful child to look after.

And, as time goes on, we worry less and less about her not being able to manage to do things other two-handed children do. She was the first of her little friends to learn to feed herself, she can do some amazing somersaults and is totally fearless, flinging herself up the climbing frame in the park, her left arm hooking itself over the bars at the elbow so she can haul herself upwards.

Imogen's so-called 'disability' has also brought us into contact with some wonderful people. Shortly after she was born we joined a charity called Reach, the Association for Children with Upper Limb Deficiency.

At regular meetings Imogen can mix with other children like herself, which is important as she is unlikely to come across anyone with the same condition in her everyday life, and parents have a chance to swap stories about achievements and new medical advances. Imogen was born with the whole of the left hand absent from the wrist downwards, with just little 'buds' where her fingers should have grown. No one knows what causes it other than something interrupted the blood supply to the developing limb early in pregnancy and many questions still remain unanswered. In recent years, though, there have been advances in prosthetics for children and, at 18 months old. Imogen went 'bionic' and became one of the youngest children who attend the disablement services centre at Withington Hospital to be fitted with a myo-electric prosthesis. With this she can open and shut fingers on an artificial hand via electrodes placed on the skin of her forearm and operated by a battery which she carries in a bag slung across her body.

This is normal for Imogen. She does not realise yet that everyone does not put an arm on with the rest of their clothes when they get up in the morning or has to make regular trips to hospital to get their 'special hand' repaired or remodelled.

In fact, during her short life, Imogen has known nothing but kindness and a positive attitude from everyone she has come across and is blissfully unaware that she is different in any way from anyone else.

Which is why the comments made by Mr Hoddle, a self professed Christian, recently have so angered my family and I. Many other parents and professionals have told us that Imogen will begin to question why she is different when she reaches the age of around six or seven and building her confidence is more important than any physical help we can give her. This will help her to deal with any situation and the inevitable questions which will come from other curious children.

For those of you who have not read the England coach's remarks, he is reported to have said: "You and I have been given two hands and two legs and half decent brains. Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime."

Since the controversy broke at the weekend, a friend has commented to me that Christian church leaders such as the Archbishop of Canterbury would not agree with or make statements such as those.

But, unfortunately, in today's society, more people are likely to listen to and take notice of what the national soccer coach says than any religious leader. One of our main consolations when Imogen was born was that she would be living in a more enlightened society - one which was more willing to accept people like her for who they are, rather than be ashamed of them or try and hide them away as they did in the Dark Ages. So it comes as a shock as we are about to enter the 21st century that such misguided beliefs as Mr Hoddle's are still being perpetrated.

If you follow Mr Hoddle's reasoning, Alistair and I feel we must have done something terrific in a previous life to have deserved being the parents of a little girl like Imogen who has brought so much joy to so many people. But, for the sake of all the Imogens out there and their future happiness, the likes of Glenn Hoddle must not be allowed to occupy such important national posts. He should go now!

For more information about Reach, contact Sue Stokes at 12 Wilson Way, Earls Barton, Northamptonshire NN6 0NZ or telephone 01604 811041. Donations and fund-raising for the charity are always welcomed.

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