Having no legs won't stop me! Girl who battled meningitis makes the school football team

By LUCY LAING



Striker: Ellie became the youngest person in the world to be fitted with some special carbon fibre sports legs



This is brave little Ellie Challis playing football.

Little Ellie touched the hearts of the world when she took her first ever steps on prosthetic legs after tragically losing all her limbs to meningitis in July 2005.

She had defied all the odds to fight for her life in hospital after contracting the killer bug, but she had to have all her limbs amputated eight weeks later.

She has spent the last four years walking on prosthetic limbs - and now amazingly she plays football for her school team.



Fighter: Sitting on father Paul's knee, brave Ellie Challis has defied odds to play for her school football team



Her mother Lisa, 38, said: 'It is fantastic to see Ellie playing football. When she lost her legs to meningitis we never imagined that one day she would be playing football for her school team.

'All the other children are able bodied, but she keeps up with all the other team members.



'To think that she has prosthetic legs yet plays football for her school is just remarkable. Its something that we never thought we would ever see.

'She is just the most gutsy and remarkable child. She has no problems on the football field at all. She just gets on with it and she loves playing.

'Her favourite team is Arsenal and she watches all their matches with her dad. She's football mad.'

Ellie was struck down with the near fatal bug just a month after her parents wedding day.

Lisa, who lives in Essex, with husband Paul, 48, said: 'She woke up one morning and was sick. She had a fever too and her limbs were freezing.



No stopping her: Ellie (left) as a baby after losing her limbs to meningitis. Now she plays once a week for her school's football team



'I took her to hospital but blood tests came back clear and we were sent home.'

But when Lisa arrived home, she noticed three red spots on Ellie's back.

Just four hours later she was covered in deep purple marks.

She said: 'I knew it was meningitis straight away and we rushed her back to hospital. She was so brave as the doctors put tubes into her and her body swelled up to three times its size.'

Ellie deteriorated fast. Within minutes she was black and blue. Then just a few hours later her heart stopped and doctors called her parents in to say goodbye.

Lisa, who also has two other children Tai'la, twelve, and Connor, 13, said: 'Paul and I just stood at the end of her bed shouting at her to survive.

'We thought we were going to lose her, but amazingly she pulled through and her heart started again.'

But over the next four days, slowly Ellie's legs and arms started to turn black. The couple were told that her arms and legs would have to be amputated.

Lisa, who works as a carer for adults with learning difficulties, said: 'We were devastated. All I could think about was how she was ever going to live a normal life.



source: dailymail