Prom night for most teenage girls is a great evening of glitz and glamour.

And Emma Danskin attended her school prom last night at the start of a fantastic weekend which her family feared she would never see.

The student at St Mary's Roman Cath-olic comprehensive school at Menston last night danced at the prom. And today she was celebrating her 18th birthday.

But only eight months ago Emma was fighting for her life after a car crash which left her with horrific injuries.

She has just learned to walk again after being seriously injured when the car she was travelling in left the road and ploughed into a field between Otley and Harrogate last November. At the time her family was told she might not survive after suffering a massive blood clot on her brain, resembling a stroke. Doctors said her brain damage could be so severe she might never walk or talk again.

But after eight months in hospital, Emma is proving doctors wrong as she struggles back to fitness.

Her mum Helen Crow, 36, of Burley-in-Wharfedale, said: "She has amazed everybody. We were originally told she couldn't survive because the blow to her head was so severe it killed the right side of her brain. But once she had overcome that it made me realise anything could happen."

Emma's recovery at Chapel Allerton Hospital at Leeds, where she has received speech therapy, occupational therapy and counselling, has been a long process.

But she has always managed to remain positive, according to her mum.

"When she could hold a conversation she said she didn't want anyone to be miserable and she has laughed every day since," Helen said. "She is so determined and it is now just a matter of her building up strength to come home."

A planning application to build a downstairs bedroom and bathroom for Emma at home has already been submitted.

And Emma's mum, who is separated from her father Adrian, is now dreaming of the day when she can welcome her daughter home.

"The past eight months have been awful - I have really missed her," she said. "She's my best friend and the whole family wants to see her home for Christmas."

Last night Emma amazed her friends as she drew up to her sixth-form leaver's prom in a limousine with her mum and 16-year-old sister Laura.

Helen, a Detective Constable, said: "She really wanted to walk into the prom and her 18th party tonight unaided. She even asked her physiotherapist to teach her a few dance moves."

Gerry Sayers, head of sixth form at St Mary's, said she has been overwhelmed by Emma's progress. "She is an amazing young lady who has come through such an horrific accident with horrific injuries but is still smiling," she said. "We are all delighted to have Emma here with us."

Emma will tonight be celebrating her birthday with a huge party surrounded by family and friends. Joining her will be a handful of nurses and physiotherapists who have followed her dramatic recovery.

And the passer-by who administered first aid at the crash scene, Tony Guillardine, 37, of Horsforth, will also be there. "I wish her a very happy birthday because she really deserves it," he said.

"She is a lovely person and has never lost her sense of humour."