Ellie-Mae Mellor, from Stoke-on-Trent, caught meningitis just before her first birthday (pictured right, before catching infection). She became so ill that doctors didn't think she would survive and advised her parents to arrange the last rites. But amazingly Ellie-Mae pulled through, despite after losing and arm and both her legs. She has now learned to walk on 'rocking' legs (left) and plans to do a sponsored walk to raise money to fix her school's church roof.

Jo Short, 37, had been diagnosed with endometriosis - a gynaecological condition affecting almost two million women in the UK, where womb tissue grows painfully in other areas of the body - but she and her husband Steve were told by eight different medical consultants that this should not be affecting her ability to carry a baby to term. The couple from Newport, Wales, appeared on ITV's Daybreak with their healthy baby Emily Rose to explain that they successfully conceived her just months after Jo had pioneering surgery.

Paul Callan, 54, (inset, left) was forced to take action after nurses failed to respond to his wife Bridget's pleas for medical attention during her stay at Tameside Hospital in Manchester. Mrs Callan, then 54, (pictured right, on holiday in 1990) died four days later. She feared she was going into a 'diabetic hypo' and needed sugar urgently. Mrs Callan eventually received a sugary drink but died suddenly four days later aged 54 after contracting C-difficile infection.

Matthew Booth, 20, began starving himself when he was 14 after being bullied at school. At his worst, he stopped eating and drinking completely and at 18 was rushed to hospital, where his heart stopped and doctors battled for 20-minutes to bring him back to life. At his thinnest, Matthew weight just 5st 8lbs. He had stopped eating and drinking completely and became delusional, refusing to go into the kitchen for fear than food or drink would somehow enter his body.

Lucy Copland, 27, from Lincolnshire, was worried when she noticed baby Alfie didn't move during routine scans (right). But doctors at Peterborough City Hospital (pictured) dismissed her fears and overlooked the fact her baby had a serious medical condition called foetal akinesia deformation sequence, which causes the bones to fuse together. Baby Alfie died just five hours after birth. Mrs Copland said: 'I was made to feel like a paranoid mum. When we finally found out what was wrong with Alfie I felt devastated and let down that nobody had listened to me earlier.'

Part-time model and trainee nurse, Chelsey Reynolds, from Essex, went from leading an active life to being permanently confined to a wheelchair in a matter of hours. She suffers from a condition called Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS), which means that every time she stands up, her heart rate speeds up, causing her to pass out. Chelsey's PoTS is so severe that she has had to learn to walk on her knees around the house, and even carries a small stool with her wherever she goes.

Five-year-old Nicole Cloke (with mother Gemma), from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, was born with a congenital haemangioma birthmark which meant she could not live an active life. She was suffering from a congenital haemangioma birthmark, a cluster of deformed blood vessels just underneath her skin. But after two years of treatment using creams, the blood vessels of the birthmark have shrunk, meaning Nicole she can run for the first time

Mother-of-four Annmarie James-Thomas hand-wrote a 20-point life plan before she died from cervical cancer aged 44. Her heartbroken husband Geraint - who found the note after her death - revealed its contents on what would have been his wife's 45th birthday. Annmarie's words of advice to her family, including her four sons Zack, 22, Harrison, 18, Harvey, 16, and Roddy, 13, include: 'The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give' and 'worrying is wasted time, use the same energy to do something about whatever is worrying you'.