I just want to breathe

She is just weeks away from the best present of her life and one she has always dreamed for.

Laura is the only person in England to suffer from a rare condition which has paralysed her vocal chords since birth, leaving her unable to breathe without the aid of a tube in her throat.

She is to undergo surgery next month which she hopes will transform her life, allowing her to swim and run around with her friends at Manor Hall School, Manor Hall Road, Southwick, for the first time.

The operation will take place just ten days after her tenth birthday, and Laura, from Portslade, said yesterday her "number one present" would be to lead a normal life like her friends.

For the first year of her life, Laura used to laugh, cry and lose her temper in silence.

She would grin with happiness or wipe tears from her cheeks but the emotions were never accompanied by sounds because of her condition, congenital bilateral vocal cord palsy.

Doctors warned she might never be able to speak properly but her will power proved them wrong. She developed speech by simply being around her brothers and sisters and through sheer determination not to be left out.

Yesterday, she told how she is hopeful of a bright new phase in her childhood and her dreams of the future.

She said: "I am looking forward to not being sat in the classroom when others go swimming.

"PE is my favourite lesson, I like rounders and cricket but not the sporty ones - I can't run around.

"We are having a big party for my birthday, I am excited. I am looking forward to running and swimming, that is my number one birthday present."

Laura spent the first three months of her life in intensive care at the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital, Dyke Road, Brighton.

Her survival, let alone her ability to one day swim, was in doubt.

Her life was saved when doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, diagnosed the condition and fitted a tracheostomy tube, which connects the windpipe with a small external hole.

That allowed her to breathe but she has lived with the tube throughout her childhood.

Two years ago, Laura had the tube removed and now breathes through the hole, or stoma, but she has never been able to respire through her mouth.

Her mother Fiona, 41, said: "She is a very strong child but every child wants to be normal.

"If this works, she will still have the condition but she will be able to breathe unaided.

"She will still have to be observed but it will give her a certain amount of freedom.

"She is the only one in England, so it has been quite difficult because we have nothing to go on. It is difficult caring for a child with a tracheostomy. From one to three years I was a walking zombie - it is 24-hour care, night and day.

"But there is light at the end of tunnel. She has done so well.

"If she can breathe unaided, that is the next step and it will be a huge celebration if that happens. She is such a special little girl, she makes the most of every minute."

On September 4, Laura will arrive by limousine at the Babylon Lounge in Kingsway, Hove, for her tenth birthday party.

She will hand over a £3,000 cheque, raised by her family, to Ronald McDonald House Charities, which offers free rooms to the families of children being treated at the Royal Alexandra.

Mrs Greenfield said: "We have been fund-raising for them, they have been so good to us."

Meredydd Harries, the consultant at the Royal Alexandra who has looked after Laura since she was born, said: "Laura has done wonderfully well with the support from parents and family and we are delighted she is nearing the final stages of surgery."

Both Laura's vocal chords were paralysed at birth in a closed position.

If the cords had been paralysed open, she would have been able to breathe but not talk.

Surgeons at Great Ormond Street Hospital saved Laura's life but she has been unable to exercise and keep active like other children and has been extremely prone to lung infections, leading to weight loss every winter.