Beaming mum Cat Halliday couldn’t be more proud of her 10-week-old twin boys and their energetic toddler sister.

But behind the picture of domestic bliss, Cat is facing challenges that most other parents could not begin to imagine.

Her children have all been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). The genetic condition, for which Cat is a carrier, affects the connective tissues that support the skin, bones, blood vessels and organs and causes widespread health problems.

Two-year-old Tiffany has already had an operation on her throat because floppy muscles left her with breathing difficulties. The tot also has three holes in her heart, for which she’s also had surgery.

Meanwhile the 26-year-old’s twins, who were born at Medway Maritime Hospital, are just a few months old, but Alfie has already had heart problems and a bleed on his brain, while Maxwell has just had throat surgery at the Evelina Children’s Hospital in London, to clear his airways.

Cat, of Wood Street, Sheerness, adores her little bundles of joy, but the unplanned pregnancy, which happened when she was taking the pill, nearly ended in tragedy for the whole family.

She said: “A nurse at the Om Medical centre [in Wood Street] spotted that I had a problem with my lungs and it was found I had blood clots on them that could have killed me.”

Cat was admitted to Medway hospital during the final stages of her pregnancy where the potentially fatal condition was successfully treated.

Despite the difficulties, former Minster College pupil Cat is determined to do the best for her family, and has even began campaigning for sick children.

She wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron because the Royal Brompton Hospital unit where Tiffany’s heart condition was treated is threatened with closure.

She has also set up a Facebook page to support other parents with disabled children, but sickeningly the devoted mum says she has occasionally been targeted by trolls making comments about cripples.

Cat, who ignores the cruel remarks said: “My kids are the light of my life and they are happy children. Tiffany was the making of me as before I had her I didn’t say boo to a goose. It was only when things went wrong that I spoke up to support her and other parents.”

The children’s father is Cat’s childhood sweetheart, Peter Durn, 27, and together with her parents, Julie and James Halliday, he helps ensure that Tiffany, Maxwell and Alfie get all the love and care they need to enjoy every day.

And every day Cat is thankful to the NHS, which she says has saved all their lives.