They were just a few small steps - but to Emma Danskin's mum they were nothing short of miraculous.The 17-year-old was seriously injured in a car crash last November and her family were warned that she would never walk again.But the determined teenager is proving them wrong as she struggles to fight her way back to fitness.Emma, a pupil at St Mary's, Menston, suffered a blood clot on the brain and al-most died several times follow-ing the crash on the Otley to Harrogate road.She suffered what was, in effect, a massive stroke, and doctors warned her parents Helen and Adrian that she could be left severely brain-damaged and unable to walk or talk again.In the immediate af-termath of the accident Emma was put into a drug-induced coma to keep her as still as pos-sible.And her family faced an agonising wait to see the extent of her injuries.When the drugs were withdrawn Emma was left paralysed down the whole of her left side.But since those early days she has made tre-mendous progress and is now learning to walk again.In re-cent days the teenager has managed to take a few steps, helped by a dedicated team of physiotherapists and supported by walking frames.Her pro-gress is all the more remark-able because she has only just undergone an operation to re-place a piece of bone which had to be removed from her skull to accommodate the swelling.The operation three weeks ago was essential to her recovery but carried serious risks of injury or death.Her mum Helen Crow, 36, a detective constable, of Burley-in-Wharfedale, said: "It was like going back to square one. It was very scary."It came with all those risks again of stroke, of more damage or of not surviving it."Helen went with her daughter into the an-aesthetic room and then paced the hospital corridors for five long hours while the operation was carried out.She said: "They said it would last one or two hours - or in the worst case in could be five. "One hour passed and then two hours passed and I was really getting wor-ried.""When it was all over I went into the recovery room to see her and she put her hand to her head and said 'hooray I've got a whole head, not half a head anymore'."With the op-eration behind her Emma can now concentrate on rehabilita-tion.And her sense of humour shines through as she jokes with her mum and her physio-therapists as she fights to re-gain the use of her left side.Emma is still unable to walk unaided and her steps are slow and painful. But her pro-gress is something her family feared they might never see. The sight of her first steps left her mother, Helen, and her fa-ther's fiancee Sara in tears.Helen said: "It was one of those things we were told she would not be able to achieve. Originally we were told she would never walk."Emma, whose treatments at Chapel Al-lerton Hospital also include speech therapy, occupational therapy and counselling, has just started reading again.And she is now making up for lost time - avidly studying a scrap-book of newspaper cuttings about her progress compiled by her mother.She is also eagerly looking forward to returning home later this month for a six-hour visit - her first since the accident.She said: "I have missed my house. I haven't been there for five months and now I just want to be at home. I'm looking forward to being with mum- I count down the time in the morning until my mum is here."Emma, who is hoping to go on to further edu-cation and become a graphic designer, is particularly look-ing forward to spending time with her four-year-old sister Carys, as well as her sister Laura, 16, and her step-sister Roseanne.The whole family, including her father, step-mother and stepfather Dave, take it in turns to visit her in hospital and her school friends and teachers also call in to keep her spirits up.Emma said: "I just want to say thank you to everybody - the surgeons, the nurses, the physios, the occu-pational therapists and every-one else who had helped me - because without them I wouldn't be here. I also want to thank my family and friends for everything they have done for me."