LIKE any other birthday party there was a cake with a candle and lots of presents.

But this was no ordinary first birthday. It was a day the Orman family once thought they would never see.

When baby April was born 12 weeks early at Southampton's Princess Anne Hospital last year she was given just a five per cent chance of survival.

Weighing 14 ounces at birth, she was thought to be one of the smallest babies in the country to have survived.

During her first weeks in hospital - much of which was spent in intensive care - little April suffered a catalogue of life-threatening problems.

It took days to get her to swallow just half a millilitre of milk and she suffered three breaks in her right arm, a broken leg and jaundice before contracting the potentially deadly hospital superbug MRSA in her eye.

The tiny baby's lungs had deflated and she had kidney problems which caused vital nutrients to leak into her blood.

She was also diagnosed as having metabolic bone disease, which meant her tiny bones had not properly formed.

April shares the family home in Warwick Road, Totton, with parents Dawn and Martin and brothers Alex, 9, and Pierce, 6.

Dawn, 36, said: "I baked a cake with a candle on it and the boys helped her open her presents. She loved all the cards and got so excited.

"In the early days we didn't think we would see this day. The first six months took so long to pass, but the last six months have flown by and she is doing brilliantly. It is wonderful."

April now weighs twelve and a half pounds, can sit up by herself, and says Mama and Dada.

Although she is still on some medication and is being seen by a specialist following a build-up of calcium on her kidneys, there are no signs that there will be any long-term problems.

"She does everything that she is supposed to do," said Dawn.

"She might be a bit slower in developing later but she could be perfectly healthy and normal.

"She is coming on in leaps and bounds - we just can't get over it.

"We had friends over the other day and April was sat on the floor with a big balloon and her T-shirt covered in her dinner. Pictures like that - that's what it is all about.

"It is just wonderful!"