Enjoying the September sunshine, five-year-old Ella Gardner looks a picture of health. Yet just months ago she was fighting for her life against meningitis.

The youngster contracted meningococcal septicaemia last October.

She was put in an incubator and doctors faced the possibility of being forced to amputate her arm because it had been attacked by gangrene.

Today however, thanks to Ella's determination and the efforts of staff from St Mary's Hospital in London and the Meningitis Research Foundation, she is fighting fit and back at home with her family.

Since her recovery, her mother Jayne Heritage has turned her attention to finding some way to thank the people who helped save her daughter.

She started fund-raising, and has already collected £43,000, which will go towards helping other victims of the disease.

Jayne, of Ring Road, North Lancing, told The Argus how she and her partner Steve's worst fears were realised when they took Ella to Worthing Hospital after she developed flu-like symptoms.

As Ella began falling in and out of consciousness, doctors quickly confirmed she had contracted a powerful strain of meningitis and needed to go into an incubator immediately.

A team from St Mary's Hospital, London, took four hours to stabilise her condition.

She stayed at the London hospital for 11 days, attached to life-support machines.

Mother-of-two Jayne said: "When we arrived they said the next 24 hours were crucial. They were preparing us for the worst.

"I really thought she was going to leave us. It was the way everyone was talking and the way the consultants were acting.

"Steve and I were both amazingly strong at the time. The adrenaline kicks in because you have so much to take in and it's almost like this terrible thing is not happening."

The bad news continued, even when Ella no longer needed the life-support machines.

Jayne said: "Ella had got gangrene in her left arm as a result of the septicaemia. They said at best she would need plastic surgery or, at worst, amputation.

"The last thing Ella had said before incubation was that she could not see. I thought she was going to be blind as well.

"I wanted to get her back to Worthing, I had not seen my six-month-old son Daniel for two weeks."

Things took a turn for the better when a trial drug was offered by Meningitis Research Foundation and, to the amazement of Ella's doctors, she was back at school within five weeks of her diagnosis.

Overwhelmed with gratitude, Jayne, 32, and Steve, 36, organised a golfing day on September 11 to raise some cash.

About 140 people attended the event, held at East Sussex National Club, Uckfield, which included an auction.

Jayne said: "I feel now I've done this, I can close the chapter because I have done what I set out to do. We raised a lot of money and I am very grateful to everyone who got involved."