'Water therapy has given my daughter confidence'

Lillie has been making progress towards her mission to walk unaided

A 15-year-old girl who was told she may never walk after being born with cerebral palsy has grown in confidence thanks to aqua therapy, her mother has said.

Lillie's mum, Keighly, said the sessions had helped her daughter take some unaided steps and open up and use her hands, having held them in fists for many years.

She said her daughter had even been able to walk with her down the aisle with support from a walker on her wedding day.

"[The sessions] have made her the person that she is by giving her the confidence that she has now got, which she didn't have before," Keighly said.

"Just those few steps, it's life-changing for us. We want to keep pushing forward," Keighly added.

Lillie attends week-long sessions at Swim Lab in Lanzarote multiple times a year and is next set to go out to the facility on Sunday.

From her first visit at nine years old she had seen improvements, her mum said.

"Three visits ago, her goal was to stand unaided. Now she's smashed standing, walking with assistance and is now working on unaided walking," she explained.

"We are so excited to go and see what she achieves this time."

Lillie suffered mild brain damage at birth, having been born not breathing before being resuscitated nine minutes later, and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

Keighly had been told her daughter would have no quality of life and not be able to talk, eat or walk.

But by the age of two, she knew her colours and shapes, was able to count and used Makaton, a sign and symbol language, to communicate.

"She wasn't who doctors said she'd be," Keighly said.

Lillie's family has been fundraising throughout her life for various treatments and therapies, including Swim Lab, which they said had no equivalent in the UK.

Despite usually going three or four times a year, Lillie will have nine months to wait after this session, as sooner slots had been booked up while her family was still fundraising.

Keighly said she was "gutted" about the delay.

"We don't want her to lose everything that she's gained in the last couple of years," she added.

'Massive impact'

A personalised programme is made for the patient for each session, split into water- and land-based sections.

Movements learned in the water are then practised on land and continued at home.

Keighly said the sessions had helped Lillie mentally as well as physically.

She added: "I don't know if she gets that [confidence] just from knowing she can do anything that she puts her mind to with their help, or if it's the team there and how they treat her, but it's made a massive impact on her mental health."

Lillie said having a disability "doesn't make you who you are".

"You can do whatever you want, as long as you set your mind to it," she said.

Paul Webb, CEO of Swim Lab, and Lillie's lead therapist, said she had made "exceptional progress" in the sessions

"Together, our goal to is realise her dream to be able to walk," he added.

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