The triumph of Nadia Clarke

Nadia Clarke with mum Katie who fought to have her educated in a mainstream school and relocated the family from Northumberland to Halifax to live near a school that was prepared to take her. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

The article printed in the Guardian 11 years ago had readers rooting for a bright little girl locked in a disabled body Photograph: Guardian

Katie and Andy, Nadia's parents, started writing to primary schools about Nadia when she was four years old. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

Nadia was accepted at Savile Park primary school in Calderdale, which took the view that the other children would benefit from her presence. 'I was excited about meeting new friends,' she recalls. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

'It's really good fun being with Nadia,' says Adele Kneen, Nadia's support worker, who is helping her with the teenager with the transition to her new college. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

A family photo of Nadia as a little girl in the garden. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

'Nothing is simple,' says Katie, Nadia's mum, whose turbo-charged personality has been inherited by all her six children. 'It's a rocky road at times but it can be travelled.' Photograph: Christopher Thomond

'Now I'm off to college and after that uni I hope, then maybe travel the world for a year, and then go on to my dream of working in healthcare,' says Nadia. Photograph: Christopher Thomond