Diagnosed in 1999, at 2 years old, Okines was born with progeria, a genetic disease that causes her to age eight times faster than the average person. This put her projected lifespan at thirteen years. When she was 13 years old, she already had a physical age of 102 years. Although the average life expectancy for sufferers is 13 years, Hayley was part of a drug trial that had seen her beat the doctors' predictions of her projected lifespan. However, on 2 April 2015 at 9:39pm GST she died at the age of 17 due to complications with pneumonia, 4 years beyond the doctors' initial predictions and after attending a full scholastic year in college.
