A GRAN who couldn’t eat solid food for five years is set to enjoy Christmas dinner again today after her granddaughter’s wish came true.

Pauline Smithstone, 52, has a medical condition that means she struggles to swallow food and drink.

The former agency nurse, of The Meadows, Ightenhill, said her illness had left her housebound, completely reliant on her family and with no quality of life.

But after years eating only ice cream, soups and yoghurts, eventually surviving on just five 300-calorie bottles of juice a day, she won a battle to receive NHS funding for private treatment.

Now she is on the road to recovery, much to the delight of her granddaughters Kaitlyn, eight, and Grace, four.

She said: “It’s nice for my granddaughters. It was Kaitlyn’s wish last year to get me better, so I could have Christmas dinner with them as a family.

“She said she told Father Christmas she didn't want any presents, she just wanted me to get better.

“I’m still seeing a specialist in London because I’ve got a lifelong condition, but they have managed to make it so I can eat reasonably well now.

“I eat normal food, but I don't eat dry food like crisps or bread or rice. Everything I have I take with sauces like gravy.”

The mum-of-two was ecstatic last December when NHS East Lancashire agreed to pay for eight weeks of treatment in the capital.

Thanks to the help of two expert gastro-urologists based in the Princess Grace Hospital she is now eating proper meals again, although she is still limited to what she can do physically, and struggles to walk or stand for long periods.

She has been down to London three times since April, and is also visiting a doctor in Manchester who monitors her digestive system and the level of pain she suffers when eating.

Pauline said she was now looking forward to sitting down to her first Christmas dinner since 2004 at her daughter Gemma's home in Brierfield.

She said: “We've just been decorating the Christmas cake with the two girls.

“I’ll be having the meal, some Christmas pudding, some chocolate cake and ice cream.

“I don’t even have to cook it!”