The Hartlepool miracle girl who has gone back to school - 12 years after doctors feared she might not survive infancy

Talia Foster, 12, has started in Year 8 at Catcote Academy in Catcote Road and returned to school yesterday after being in lockdown since February.

It’s a remarkable turnaround for a girl who had hundreds of seizures a day when she was first born. Doctors told her mum she may not survive infancy.

In the years that followed, she has also tackled epilepsy, brain cysts and numerous chest problems.

Now Talia is back at the school she adores and she loved being back with friends, said mum Clair who said her first day was a mix of tears and excitement at her return.

She praised the school for its class bubble and face masks policies and described them as ‘fantastic’ ideas.

But Clair also explained how the decision to have Talia back at school was not an easy one.

"We had to send her back to build up immunity. She has been at home for so long, she is susceptible to bugs.”

In recent months, Talia, from the Brierton area, has come through a life-threatening struggle with sepsis which saw her in hospital for six days.

She was so poorly doctors told her parents she could have died from organ failure if she had not received treatment when she did.

Clair – married to Brendan, 43, and mum to Callum, 24, and Gabrielle, 15 – added: “Brendan and Callum are both at work and Gabrielle is now in 6th form at English Martyrs, and they are all mixing with other people.

"It was such a difficult decision and we did not take it lightly. The point of Talia being at home did not weigh up for us so, as a family, we made the hard but right decision to send her to school.”

Clair added: “This comes as a risk as it is to all families, a risk I am so frightened of, especially as not everyone is being sensible and no-one knows how safe they are by being with others.

"I can’t change the future and what will be will be. All I can do is keep weighing up the options of keeping us all as safe as possible.”

At the same time, though, Clair is also conscious of a spike in Covid-19 cases.

The rolling seven-day rate of new cases of coronavirus in every UTLA (upper-tier local authority) across England showed Hartlepool rose from 10.7 to 41.6 cases per 100,000 people following 39 new confirmed cases of Covid-19.

Clair said: “If there is a high spike in cases again, then Brendan and I will have to look again at the situation and go from there. The winter months scare me, especially with flu and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) which Talia is prone to.

"These symptoms look so much like Covid-19.”

Clair added: “There are people who are saying Covid-19 is a load of rubbish. They say it is a cold and a virus. Covid is not rubbish.

"The cases are starting to rise again.”

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