'I relearnt to walk and talk to get back on stage'

A teenager who had to learn to walk and talk again after a rare operation is celebrating her return to the stage and performing.

Ellie, 16, from Crewe, Cheshire, sang in front of an audience for the first time following surgery last year that involved having part of her skull stored in her stomach.

She had nine surgeries over the space of 13 weeks and at one point feared she might never leave hospital.

Ellie said she felt "overwhelmed with love" after the performance on Sunday, which was part of a fundraising event at the Coppenhall Club in Crewe.

WARNING: This story contains a photo showing the aftermath of hospital surgery

"It was the best feeling in the world," she said, although admitted she had begun feeling nervous.

"The second I started, all the nerves just went away and I felt like I did before – back to normal."

The teenager has been performing since the age of three and previously appeared in Emmerdale and trod the boards in the West End.

Her mum Joanne said she had found it difficult to imagine her daughter getting back on stage so soon after her surgery.

"I wasn't sure I'd ever get back there," Ellie said.

"I was hopeful that I would as soon as possible but with something like what happened, you just never know how possible [it might be]."

Ellie was taken to hospital in May 2024 after a week of suffering from persistent headaches and nausea and becoming sensitive to light, as well as vomiting up to 16 times a day.

Following blood tests and an MRI scan, it was discovered Ellie had a bleed on her brain caused by a cavernoma - a group of abnormal blood vessels resembling a raspberry..

The condition does not always cause symptoms and, according to the NHS, about one in every 600 people in the UK is living with a cavernoma without any symptoms.

Ellie underwent surgery at Alder Hey Children's Hospital that involved removing part of her skull to relieve pressure and it was then stored in her stomach to keep it sterile before it could be put back in place.

After her surgery, the 16-year-old could only communicate by wiggling her thumb and it took about seven weeks for movement to start returning to her legs.

Speaking about the illness, mum Joanne said: "She was a healthy, 15-year-old child at the time, never been ill in her life, always so busy and energetic with dance and rehearsals every night.

"It was just a massive shock, a massive blow to be honest."

Ellie – who is currently taking her GCSE exams – has now started preparing for her next performance in July, as part of an ensemble in Everybody's Talking About Jamie at Crewe Lyceum.

"She's not full out dancing like she'd like to be, we're still working on that side of things with physio and rehab," Joanne said.

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