Standing tall again and with a beaming smile, the little girl caught in gang crossfire

It is a beaming smile that tells the world Thusha Kamaleswaran has never given up hope.Paralysed from the chest down by a stray bullet in a gang war, doctors said she would never walk again.
But seven-year-old Thusha insisted she would stand on her own two feet again - and these extraordinary photographs show her determination to recover.
She has astonished doctors by defying their original diagnosis that she would be permanently paralysed and confined to a wheelchair.

Beaming: Thusha Kamaleswaran, who was paralysed after she was caught in gang crossfire in 2011, is pictured smiling as she has started to stand again

She was just five years old when a gunman’s bullet shattered her spine and left her fighting for her life.
CCTV images showed her dancing and skipping in her uncle’s shop just seconds before the shots rang out - carefree steps which her parents feared would be her last.
They took the agonising decision not to tell Thusha she was paralysed, as they did not want her to give up hope.
And now Thusha’s amazing progress means doctors have told her family they believe she will walk again.

The brave schoolgirl said: ‘I can’t wait until I can walk properly on my own again.
‘I’ve already taken some steps on the treadmill in my harness with my physio helping me. I want to dance around and play basketball with my friends.’
Her father Jeyakumar Ghanasekaram, 38, said: ‘Thusha never gave up hope of walking again, even when she was in hospital and had to take over a year off school.
‘She’s so hard working and never stops smiling. She just wants to play with her friends like other children.
‘She does her physio exercises every day with that dream in mind.’ Thusha’s success is made all the more remarkable because of her fight for life from her catastrophic injuries.

Learning to walk again: Thusha, pictured before she was shot, left, and while undergoing physio during her recovery

She was shot in her uncle’s shop in Stockwell, South London, in March 2011 when gunmen targeted a member of a rival gang, without caring who was caught in the crossfire.
Three men have since been jailed for the shooting.
Surgeons at King’s College Hospital worked through the night to stop Thusha bleeding to death, including reviving her twice after she suffered two heart attacks.
Unconscious for a week, the schoolgirl was kept alive on a life support machine and her parents were warned she had only a 50-50 chance of survival.

Harrowing: CCTV from inside Stockwell Food and Wine showing Thusha lying injured after she was shot

Stricken: Thushan is found lying injured in one of the aisles of the shop

Once her life was out of danger, Thusha was transferred to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire and began intensive physiotherapy for the damage to her spinal cord from the bullet.
Now she can stand with the help of her walking frame and physiotherapists help her to walk in a harness which carries her weight, to teach her body ‘muscle memory’ and help her spinal cord to make new nerve connections.
Every step takes concentration and massive effort, but for her family it is like watching ‘a miracle’, her father told the Sunday Mirror.
Her mother Sharmila Kamaleswaran, 36, told the newspaper: ‘Last month we came home one day to find a letter from the hospital about Thusha’s treatment.
‘It came as a total shock, but it said that because of her amazing progress they’d changed their minds and she would definitely walk again. We were so happy.'

Police cordon off the scene in Stockwell, South London after Thusha was shot in 2011

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