A LITTLE girl who suffered a type of stroke at the age of five has been allowed home to start the New Year with her family.

Melissa Lambert, five, of Northcote Street, Darwen, became semi-paralysed almost three weeks ago when she contracted a rare illness known as ADEM -- acute disseminated encephalomyelitis.

The sudden illness affects the nerve endings in the brain which are usually coated in a protective fat.

In Melissa's case, the fat started to come away from the nerve endings which became inflamed and started affecting messages being sent from her brain to the rest of her body.

She started to get double vision and eventually could not walk.

She had to go to the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Pendlebury, for several scans and was given steroids to reduce the inflammation.

She is now having physiotherapy and her family have been told she needs to return only for her tests and check-ups.

Her mum, Cheryl, an insurance clerk, said: "She started with aching legs and we just put it down to growing pains. She then started squinting and closing one eye to look at things and we just thought she was being silly.

"Then her teachers noticed she wasn't herself and Melissa told me it was because she didn't want to be in the school nativity.

"We told her she didn't have to do it and she seemed happier but then she became incontinent and we knew something must be wrong.

"The doctor said perhaps it was flu symptoms but then one afternoon she told her granddad that she was seeing two of everything.

"The next day I got her up for her doctor's appointment and she couldn't move and she was screaming every time I touched her.

"She was struggling to walk and the doctor sent her straight to Queens Park Hospital for a brain scan.

"It was really worrying. They didn't find anything on the scan but we were still worried what it could be. Later that night she was transferred to Manchester so that if she deteriorated any further, the intensive care unit and all the equipment was near by."

Melissa had an MR scan and a lumbar puncture.

Cheryl said: "The illness is very rare. They caught it quite quickly because at some point it could have started affecting the muscles that help her breathe and she could have gone into a coma. We were so lucky. It was a rough time for her and she was really brave.

"One minute she was running around and doing normal things a five-year-old does and the next she was nearly paralysed.

"Luckily, she has been allowed to come home for Christmas and New Year.

"Although she is a bit wobbly at the moment, she is walking slowly. She is having an hour of physio a day.

"We go to St Barnabas Church and everyone there has been praying for us which has really helped me through it."

Melissa, who attends Ashleigh Primary School, is looking forward to spending more time at home with her mum and dad, Graham, and seven-year-old sister Brenna.