As she proudly stands on her own two feet, courageous Ipswich youngster Brooke Lawrance is continuing to defy the medical odds.

Ipswich Star: Brooke Lawrance has started to be able to walk on sticks unaided.Brooke Lawrance has started to be able to walk on sticks unaided. (Image: Sarah Lucy brown)

The eight-year-old was just a toddler when she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and her parents Sarah and Peter were told she would never be able to walk.

Ipswich Star: Brooke Lawrance has started to be able to walk on sticks unaided. Back L-R Sarah and Peter Lawrance Front L-R Sam, Nadine,Brooke and Neve Lawrance.Brooke Lawrance has started to be able to walk on sticks unaided. Back L-R Sarah and Peter Lawrance Front L-R Sam, Nadine,Brooke and Neve Lawrance. (Image: Sarah Lucy brown)

But thanks to pioneering surgery in the USA, physiotherapy and a lot of hard work, the Britannia Primary School pupil is showing major signs of progress.

For she has already reached a big stage in her journey by using tripod crutches to walk – and she is even able to do it unaided when she is at home.

Proud mum Sarah, 34, of Morland Road, says her progress has been remarkable.

She added: “She walked into school for the first time and she is now going to progress on to sticks, which she has started doing in the last three weeks independently, which is fantastic.

“She needs someone there but she has started doing it on her own.

“It’s amazing. When she was diagnosed we were told she would never walk and now she is doing this – it’s just amazing.”

Brooke and her family travelled to the St Louis Children’s Hospice in Missouri in November 2012 for a ground-breaking and successful selective dorsal rhizotomy operation.

Despite the operation and her successes in recent months, the youngster still requires physiotherapy and aftercare to continue to improve, something Sarah said her daughter is determined to do.

She said: “We are so happy for her.

“She was down at the beginning of the year. I think because she couldn’t see anything was happening. But now she has got on to her sticks and she has done the hard work, she can see something is happening now. She is over the moon.”

Brooke’s progress in the last few years has been remarkable.

Her highlights have included walking on to West Ham United’s Upton Park pitch and riding a horse on her own for the first time.

But Brooke’s focus has been the same throughout – to walk on her own, completely unaided, for the first time.