A GIRL from North Yorkshire who travelled thousands of miles for life-changing surgery will hit the ground running when she starts secondary school this year.

Willow Emmison-Neal, from Skipwith near Selby, has a form of cerebral palsy which affects her legs, and The Press followed her journey in 2012 as family and friends raised £60,000 to send her to America for a procedure to help her walk unaided.

Now 11, Willow is just weeks away from starting at Fulford School in York, and her mother Sally Neal said the three years since Willow's operation had gone by very quickly.

She said: "It's scary. It's flown by, sort of. I saw a memory update on social media from the first trip to Scotland for muscle strengthening and that was three years ago. It goes really fast. We're there again in August, we went twice last year and going to do another two weeks before high school, as it's a good way of building her strength and that will help with first few weeks so she can just concentrate on settling in.

"I think she's feeling a bit mixed but only in a very normal way but very excited as well. I think there will be many opportunities for her there, we are all excited for her. They seem to have a really good team there and their way of thinking is very 'can do', the kind of people we like."

Since the operation, Willow's movement has improved massively, and while she still undergoes physiotherapy and training on a regular basis, she swims with her eight-year-old sister at Heslington sports village.

Sally said: "I think probably most significant thing is that she's started to run, which was a personal goal for Willow. It's not a run like you or I would run, but she definitely propels herself off the ground. It's quite astounding really when you think of where she's come from, that's a big deal.

"In the past year she's been skipping with a friend and she's able to do that. It's lovely to see her joining in with that sort of thing. When we saw her at sports day we were kicking ourselves for not filming anything. We couldn't believe it when we saw her running with her classmates. she'd done it the year before and she was behind everyone but this year she was still last, but in the group. I couldn't quite believe my eyes. Running and jumping are things we all take for granted but to see that was amazing."