Girl defies wheelchair diagnosis

8 January 2013 Last updated at 18:24 ET

A seven-year-old girl has walked into school for the first time after being told by doctors she would spend her life in a wheelchair.

Brooke Lawrance, from Ipswich, who has cerebral palsy, underwent five hours of life-changing spinal surgery in America last November.

"It was the longest five hours of my life," said mother Sarah Lawrance.

She added: "To see her walk into school was amazing." The treatment, paid for by donations, cost about 65,000.

Brooke was diagnosed with cerebral palsy aged two-and-a-half and has spent most of her life in a wheelchair.

Her ability to walk has been achieved through extensive physiotherapy and Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) surgery, developed by Dr Park, paediatric neurosurgeon at the St Louis Children's Hospital in Missouri.

The operation concentrates on the lower part of the spinal cord.

Ms Lawrance said: "We found out about SDR two years ago.

"We emailed Dr Park X-rays and film footage of Brooke for him to examine and he replied saying that he felt with an operation Brooke had every opportunity of walking.

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Girl defies wheelchair diagnosis