LITTLE Bradley Dewsnap is a Christmas cracker.

It is just 12 months since Bradley was born on December 23 - three months premature and weighing just 1lb 15oz (878.8g).

Doctors gave him only a 50-50 chance of survival after it was discovered he had a hole in his heart as well as suffering from a chronic lung condition.

Out of 570,000 babies born in England each year, just 1800 - or 0.3 per cent - weigh less than 2lb 2oz ( 1000g ).

And parents Joanne Dewsnap and Sean McGurk feared they would never see their son's first birthday - or celebrate his first real Christmas.

But little Bradley has proved to be a real battler and has pulled through.

And proud mum Joanne has completed a remarkable record of his first year, with a series of photographs marking every moment in his development.

The first one was taken within a few minutes of his birth when Bradley was in his incubator, while a picture of brave Bradley enjoying his first birthday party with family and friends, is the latest addition to the album.

Along the way Joanne and Sean have captured moments they thought they might never see, like Bradley's first bath and his first hug from his parents two days after he was born.

Joanne, 19, had been at home in Zion Road, Little Harwood, when she felt pains on December 16 last year.

She went to Queen's Park Hospital, Blackburn, where doctors transferred her to Sharoe Green Hospital, Preston.

She gave birth to her first child with 23 year-old partner Sean, a week later.

Joanne said: "I panicked a bit when I realised what was happening. The doctors gave me steroids but told me there was only a 50-50 chance that he would survive. As soon as he was born they took him away from me and I couldn't even have a few minutes to touch him.

"When I finally did get to see him he didn't even look like a baby. You could see through his skin and see his veins and he had a full head of black hair.

"On Christmas Day I was finally able to hold him for the first time.

"The nurses dressed him in a bobble hat and I was allowed to hold him for just a few minutes.

"Every day after that we would take photographs of Bradley - having his first hug and his first bath, because at the time we just didn't know what was going to happen."

The hole in Bradley's heart has healed, but he still needs oxygen for his chronic lung disease.

After his birth he was kept in the neo-natal unit at Sharoe Green, under 24 hour supervision, for two months and then spent a further month in the neo-natal unit of Queen's Park Hospital.

Joanne was eventually allowed to take Bradley home on March 16 this year - just a week before when should have been born.

She said: "I couldn't go out with him because we had to take big cylinders of oxygen out in the pram with us.

"He has also had to go back into hospital on a couple of occasions, but other than that he has become a really lovely chubby baby."