A nine-year-old girl has re-kindled her love of dance being left paralysed last year.

In June 2018, Issy Dolby attended her usual after school dance class but during the lesson began to experience severe pain.

She was rushed to St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, where she was placed in an induced coma before being transferred to St George’s for specialist care, where an MRI confirmed that she had suffered a stroke.

Issy stayed in the paediatric intensive care unit for three days, before moving to Nicholls Ward for seven weeks – where the same nursing team cared for her as in 2010 when at 24 hours old she became the world’s youngest child to have keyhole surgery to treat acute appendicitis.

Three days after having the stroke, Issy was taken out of the coma and was unable to talk, eat or drink and had to be fed via a nasogastric tube. She also had no movement down her right hand side as the stroke occurred in the left hand side of her brain.

Candice Dolby, Issy’s mum, said: “The call that afternoon from her school, changed our lives.

"As soon as I saw Issy, I knew she’d had a stroke as her face had dropped. She was only eight years old at the time, you don’t expect children to have strokes.”

A couple of weeks later Candice took her daughter for a walk around the hospital in her wheelchair, and she could tell that Issy hated it

"She didn’t want to be pushed around in a wheelchair and she hated the looks she got from passersby," Candice added.

"From that moment, I saw a clear difference in her. She didn’t want to be stuck in a wheelchair so she put everything into her recovery to get back to where she was before.”

In time, Issy was able to talk in basic sentences, as well as eat, drink and stand independently. She’s now improved so much that she can run on a treadmill and dance again for short periods of time.

Seven months later, Issy has started back at school on a phased return while she continues with her extensive rehabilitation.

Dr Antonia Clarke, consultant paediatric neurologist, said: “Issy has surpassed our expectations given how seriously unwell she was.

"We didn’t expect her to regain total movement in her right arm but week by week, she’s slowly regaining more strength and it’s truly fantastic to see her doing so well now.”