A REMARKABLE teenager from Hartford has beaten all the odds - achieving three GCSEs while seriously ill in hospital.
Hannah Rose spent 15 months at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, five of them in intensive care.
Bored and fed-up she decided to study, taking German, English and French for which she has gained an A*, B and C.
Just the day before the results came out the 16-year-old came home to Chester Road and was able to celebrate her achievements and those of her friends.
"I wanted to do the GCSEs because my friends were and it gave me the chance to occupy my time. I was really surprised and pleased with the results," said Hannah.
And her determination doesn't stop there.
For Hannah is going back to St Nicholas' High School, in Hartford, to study German and English A levels.
"I think she has been an inspiration, a great many people have said that," said her mum Fran.
"As far as we were concerned if she hadn't passed it wouldn't have mattered. To even take the examinations was more than we could have expected last year."
It was in May 1999 that Hannah complained of a pain in her back.
Just days later she was paralysed and in considerable pain on a ventilator in intensive care at Alder Hey, where she stayed for five months.
Doctors believed it was a virus which caused inflammation and subsequently damaged her spine.
Normal family life for mum Fran, dad Howie, sisters Jessica, 14, and Naomi 12, was suspended.
Fran and Howie took it in turns to stay with Hannah at the Ronald MacDonald House in Liverpool.
After leaving intensive care Hannah spent 10 months on a high dependency ward.
Now she is home with two carers and the family is optimistic for the future.
Her prognosis is for extremely slow progress - but she is already getting feeling back with intensive physiotherapy.
Fran added: "We are hopeful and optimistic that things will improve for Hannah, although it is very slow.
"The day she came home was absolutely wonderful. The results she achieved were the icing on the cake."
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