The Hartlepool 5-year-old who is defying the odds to achieve her dreams

The inspirational youngster was born with a hole in the heart. Relatives say she needs a check-up at the Freeman Hospital every year.

She also has a number of spinal conditions including a double curvature of her spine and butterfly vertebrae, said her family. She gets regular checks for her spinal conditions at the RVI in Newcastle.

Tia-Rose also has extra ribs which are fused together and she has had all of these health issues since birth.

But her family say she can always be found with a smile on her face.

Her proud family told how Tia-Rose has shown her determination by becoming a dancer with the Chelsea Lupton dance school in Hartlepool.

The 5-year-old is part of a team from the townl which will be competing at a dance festival at Fantasy Island in Skegness in September.

Mum Joanne Stevens said: “Eventually, she will need surgery on her spine. We were told she would never sit up or walk but she started taking steps at one and a half years old.”

Joanne added: “Nothing gets in her way and she has always got a smile on her face.”

But in a further setback, Tia-Rose broke a bone in her arm when she was chased by a goose in Rossmere Park in town last week.

Doctors wanted to put her hand in a plaster cast but determined Tia-Rose refused to have a cast as it meant she could not go to the dance festival.

Instead, she has been fitted with a splint which means she can still compete in sections of the competition including solo, slow, pairs, and rock and roll.

Her grandmother Alison Robinson also praised Tia-Rose as ‘very determined and she is doing amazingly. She absolutely loves dancing.

"If we walk around the supermarket, she will be dancing. She is looking forward to going to the dance festival.”

"When she had the fracture, she would not have the cast. She said ‘I am not. I am going to dance.”

Alison explained how an angry goose caused the latest health issue for Tia-Rose.

Tia-Rose was in the park with other relatives and they were looking for worry worms, which are soft toys that have been hand-made in town.

Lynsey Goodall, 46, is the creative person who has made hundreds of worry worms out of wool before hiding them at locations all over town.

As Tia-Rose looked for them in the park, a goose began to approach. Alison said: “It came at us and it was going to peck us. We legged it but it scared Tia.”

Sadly, Tia-Rose suffered a fracture and also missed out on getting one of the worry worms.

But Lynsey heard about Tia-Rose’s drama in the park and kindly agreed to make a worry worm specially for the 5-year-old.

Lynsey also sent Tia-Rose chocolates and a ‘good luck’ card.

Now she’s hoping her luck will have changed as she gets ready to show off her dancing skills in Skegness.

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