LITTLE Georgia Walton is just 16 months old but she has had two brushes with death.

At birth she was rushed straight to a special care baby unit and two weeks later she was diagnosed with meningitis.

Georgia is now making a bid to be the Evening News Baby of the Year.

Her 22-year-old mum Sharon Smith, was 27 weeks into her pregnancy in October 2001, when she was admitted to Worcestershire Royal Hospital suffering from high blood pressure and kidney failure.

Her condition was so serious that she was transferred to Birmingham City Hospital for an emergency Caesarean section.

"The doctors had tried to get my blood pressure under control and I had started to feel better," she said.

"But then they told me they would have to deliver Georgia in the next hour or neither of us would make it."

She was rushed to the special care baby unit where she was put in an incubator and was put on a ventilator.

A fortnight later, tragedy struck again when Georgia was diagnosed with meningitis.

"As soon as you hear that word, it just fills you with dread and in a baby that small, I just thought that was the end," said her mum, who lives in Haywain Avenue, Warndon Villages, Worcester.

But Georgia proved a tough tot. She survived and two days before Christmas 2001 she was allowed to go home.

Georgia has since had operations to fit two "shunts" to her brain, which drain fluid caused by the meningitis.

These prevent any pressure building up in her brain that would cause brain damage.

Full-time mum Sharon said she has coped by remaining strong for her daughter.

"I have never been the sort of person to let things get me down. I just thought if I am strong, then she'll be strong.

"She is absolutely gorgeous. She has such a good nature, she's always happy and hardly ever cries," she said.

n Sharon Smith with her daughter Georgia, who is a hopeful entrant in the Evening News Baby of the Year competition.

Picture by John Chapman. 10098101