Winner ... Francesca Buckley with trophy
SWNS
Published: 19 hrs ago
A TEENAGER who was told she would never walk again has defied medics — by winning a world dance championships.
Francesca Buckley, 19, was paralysed by meningitis two years ago.
At first baffled doctors could not figure out what was making her ill. It took weeks of gruelling hospital tests before the killer bug was diagnosed.
By then it had attacked her brain and spine, destroyed the motor neuron function controlling the left side of her body, and caused a blood clot on her brain. She also had a hole in her heart.
Experts said the odds of her walking again were more than a million to one.
Miracle ... Francesca Buckley performing at last year's competition
SWNS
Francesca — who was studying dance and drama at the time — said: “The prognosis was too horrific for me to comprehend. The doctor told me, ‘You’ll never walk again’.
“I was in floods of tears as I told him I was a dancer.
“My motor neuron function was shattered, it had literally been eaten away by the virus. I couldn’t even stand up on my own.
“They’d prepared me for the worst but I just couldn’t face a life being unable to walk or dance.”
Francesca was determined to prove the medics wrong. She endured months of painful physio to gradually regain control of her legs.
And she finally taught herself to walk again.
Dance floored ... Francesca Buckley in hospital
SWNS
She managed to rejoin her old dance troupe The Dogherty Academy last year and they entered the World Irish Dance Championships.
But Francesca’s leg gave way and she collapsed during the event in Belfast.
She said: “I was devastated, not just for me but for my colleagues.
“But I was determined I’d be back and spent the next year furiously practising.”
Amazingly the troupe entered the 2013 Championships held in Boston, US — and won.
Francesca, from Birmingham, said: “I broke down in tears, it was so emotional, the greatest day of my life.
“Now I have bigger plans. Next year I want to go into a show like Lord of the Dance — I’ve come this far so I might as well try and fulfil my ultimate ambition.”
