A TEENAGE girl faces life suffering progressive dementia after her mother was given negligent advice by a fertility clinic, the High Court has heard.

Lynda Loft, 49, of Cleveland Road, Welling, decided to have a child through sperm donation as her husband had a family history of the untreatable genetic disease Huntington’s Chorea.

But while undergoing fertility treatment she says she was told by a member of staff at the Infertility Advice Centre, in Stepney Green, to have sex with husband Simon Loft as it would make her body more fertile.

Lynda did not realise Simon was the father until daughter Raisa, 14, was nine years old, when she first showed signs of the disease in 1998.

Simon Loft, who developed the first signs of the disease in 1989, was taken into care in 1993 and has since died.

Their healthy daughter Michaela was born in 1987 after successful In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatment with donor sperm.

Mrs Loft went back to the Infertility Advisory Centre, in a bid to repeat the success and have a second child.

But she says a member of the clinic’s staff told her sexual intercourse might make her more receptive to empryo implementation.

Although “surprised” by the advice, Mrs Loft said she did what she was told, thinking there was no risk of conception as all the available eggs would have been harvested.

When Raisa was born on February 27, 1989, Mrs Loft believed she was the product of the IVF treatment.

She is suing top fertility expert Dr Jack Gilliatt, who was responsible for the Infertility Advisory Services licence, for damages to cover the costs of caring for her disabled daughter.

But Dr Gilliatt denies liability insisting he cannot be held responsible for advice given by another medic.

Huntington’s Chorea is a genetically-transmitted disease of the nervous system which causes progressive and untreatable dementia.

The trial continues.