IPSWICH: Beaming Brooke Lawrance’s first day back at school was one she had dreamed of.

Unlike most youngsters returning to the classroom after the Christmas break yesterday, the seven-year-old was desperate to walk through the school gates for the very first time.

Brave Brooke, who suffers from cerebral palsy, proudly strolled into Britannia Primary School after undergoing pioneering surgery in the USA last month.

When she was diagnosed with the condition at two-and-a-half, doctors said she would never walk and would be confined to a wheelchair.

But the inspirational youngster has defied medics, and for the first time she was able to walk around the school playground with her friends.

Mum Sarah Lawrance said she was “over the moon”.

“It was amazing, a day we have all dreamed of,” she said. “We are so proud of Brooke. She has always been a happy girl but since her operation and since we got home she has just been so much happier.

“She has been looking forward to walking into school for such a long time. Someone asked her whether she was more excited about Christmas or her first day back at school and that won hands down.

“She couldn’t wait to get back with her friends and leave her wheelchair at home.”

The Lawrance family, mum Sarah, dad Peter, sisters Nadine and Neve and brother Samuel, flew to America in November for the ground-breaking treatment.

There Brooke, had the life-changing selective dorsal rhizotomy operation at St Louis Children’s Hospital in Missouri.

Her second operation, on her heel chords, took place on December 4.

n Do you know someone who has overcome the odds? Write to Your Letters, Ipswich Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail starletters@archant.co.uk