OH BABY look at you now!

The odds were stacked heavily against Donna Marie McCamon when she was born weighing less than a bag of sugar.

At the time she held the record for the tiniest surviving baby to be born in Burnley and Pendle.

Today Donna, of Gisburn Road, Blacko is preparing to mark her 21st birthday on Saturday with a party for family and friends at Barrowford Civic Hall.

She was born on July 3 at Burnley General Hospital 15 weeks premature, weighing only 1lb 8oz and measuring just 12 inches long.

The featherweight arrival was so fragile that a priest was called in to baptise her and hospital staff had to keep her covered with a blanket of cotton wool because she could not produce enough body heat herself.

Nurses made a cap and bootees to fit her doll-like figure and after initially dropping to just 1lb 2oz the tiny tot began to put some extra weight on, a quarter of an ounce a day. Four months after she arrived in the world Donna was allowed home to her proud and relieved parents Andrew and Lorraine.

Her gutsy fight for survival touched the hearts of people across the country and dozens of letters of support, together with gifts, were sent to the family.

When Donna was four she met Prince Charles as he toured the hospital's maternity unit.

Donna held the tiniest tot record until 1980 when Deborah Wilkinson, of Nelson, was born weighing just 1lb 4.5oz and measuring 11 inches.

Donna went to Holy Saviour's RC primary School, Nelson, and Fisher-More RC High School, Colne, before going on to a youth training course. She now works as a qualified nursery nurse at a Barrowford playgroup.

"I thought about asking some of the nurses who were at the hospital when I was born to the party but it's so long ago and I don't suppose any of them are still there," said Donna.

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