MIRACLE girl Laura Hamilton reduced a celebrity audience to tears at a glittering awards ceremony.

She belted out an emotionally-charged performance of Celine Dion's hit My Heart Will Go On.

For the 12-year-old schoolgirl from Hove it marked an incredible achievement.

Brave Laura was struck dumb after two life-saving liver transplant operations 11 years ago.

Her life hung in the balance in February 1988 as she waited for her second liver transplant.

Doctors gave her just hours to live, but at the last moment a donor was found and the 18-month-old toddler's life was saved.

After surgery she "died" twice when her heart stopped beating. But each time dedicated doctors and nurses managed to revive her.

The psychological trauma was so great the tiny tot was unable to speak for weeks.

But Laura put that behind her when she stood on stage in front of 400 guests at the Variety Club's 50th anniversary party in London.

Her rendition of the theme song to Titanic won her a standing ovation.

Laura's proud parents John and Anita of Broad Rig Avenue, Hove, were in the audience to see Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, and stars such as Gordon Kaye, Dame Vera Lynn, Patricia Hodge and Wendy Richards applaud their daughter with tears in their eyes.

Anita said: "We were so proud of her. We were crying - everyone was crying - it was a very emotional moment."

Laura, a pupil at Blatchington Mill School, still has to take anti-rejection drugs and have a check-up every year in London.

But Laura and her parents are forever grateful to the Variety Club, which funds the Children's Hospital at King's College Hospital, London, where most of her life-saving treatment has taken place.

And when Laura was asked to take part in the club's £400-a-head fund-raising event, she knew it was the least she could do.

She said: "It was my way of saying thank you for all the Variety Club has done for me.

"I was a bit nervous before I had to sing, but when I got up on stage they dimmed the lights and I couldn't see the audience anyway."

Laura says her ambition is to become a singer like her pop idol Celine Dion.

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