A FIVE-YEAR-OLD girl semi-paralysed by a type of stroke has gone back to school.

Melissa Lambert, of Northcote Street, Darwen, contracted a rare illness known as ADEM - acute disseminated encephalomyelitis - early last month.

She suffered double vision and was unable to walk after the nerve endings in her brain became inflamed and started affecting messages being sent to the rest of her body.

Melissa went to the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Pendlebury, for several scans before Christmas and was given steroids to reduce the inflammation in her brain.

But a month later the brave girl has put her hospital stay behind her and this week pulled on her uniform to join her pals back at Ashleigh Primary School. Her mum Cheryl said: "She has done really well and made more or less a full recovery.

"We went to physio this week and were told Melissa has done so well that she doesn't need to see her now for another month, and then after that I think she'll probably say we don't need to go again.

"She comes off the steroids next week and then it's just a case of going back for check-ups."

Cheryl added: "I was worried when I took her back to school for the first day and was expecting a phone call at work but she was fine and has stayed full days. She's been a bit tired but she's back to her normal self now, arguing with her sister and driving us mad!

"She has had a swimming lesson and that went well and she has been to gymnastics. We are just so relieved and want to put it all behind us."

Doctors caught the illness in the early stages but said it could have started affecting the muscles that help her breathe and she could have gone into a coma.

Cheryl said: "The doctors said sometimes not all the functions recover, it depends on the person. Someone older might have been more affected but Melissa is fine.

"There are little things, like she can't skip as well as before, but with time and practice she will get back to how she was."