Look who's off to her prom '“ Hartlepool's first Milennium baby celebrates milestone

The 16-year-old looked every inch a young woman in her glamorous dress as she marked the next stage in her life.

Maryellen, who was born two weeks early on New Year’s Day 2000, partied with pals from English Martyrs School at Hardwick Hall in Sedgefield.

Her birth brought new happiness into parents’ Christine and Wilfred Rudd’s lives after they lost their 11-year-old son Thomas to meningitis in 1997.

Christine, 60, said: “From Maryellen being a baby to now it has gone quickly, especially the last year.

“I have had five children and she is the youngest.”

Maryellen became the first baby of the Millennium for a Hartlepool family after Christine went into labour on New Year’s Day.

She was on her way to theatre to have a Caesarean section because Maryellen was lying in a breech position.

But she was born naturally while Christine was still on the hospital trolley at 12.09pm.

Her birth was featured in the Hartlepool Mail and council publication Hartbeat which Christine still has a copy of.

Maryellen is now looking forward to studying aviation at Stockton Riverside College on a three-year course after completing her GCSEs this summer.

Christine and Wilf, of Raby Road, have three other grown up children; Robert, Kathleen, and John.