A GIRL recovering from the effects of a stroke shed tears of joy when she got to meet her heroes, pop band One Direction.

Emily Simpson, 12, of Eaglescliffe, near Stockton, could not walk or speak after her stroke in July 2012, but has been making progress and now has limited speech and can walk.

Her dream was made true by the Rays of Sunshine children’s charity.

Emily, who attends Bishopsgarth School, was one of dozens of children who told the charity her ambition was to meet the band.

The children and their families were provided transport to Wembley in London where they were watched One Direction's This Is Us film before group members Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson interrupted by entering the cinema with torches.

Emily’s mother, Carolyn, explained the family had contacted the charity during some of the darkest days when their daughter spent three months, at one point fighting for her life, at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

Mrs Simpson said: “We got a letter a few weeks ago but in the end it all came in rush. They called last week and said, ‘can you get to London at the weekend?’

"Some of the other children didn’t know, but I told Emily, she just kept saying, ‘I can’t believe it,’ over and over again.”

Emily shed a few tears when she met the band and tried to explain what they had meant to her, especially in the worst days.

Her father, Terry Murphy, said: “She’s still buzzing about it, it was wonderful.”

Emily said: "I like them all and I got to hug all of them."

The band gave her a signed One Direction shirt, a watch, and two tickets to their 2014 tour to remember the momentous occasion.

Emily has recently made slight progress moving her fingers in her right hand, possibly due to a Ness H200 electric machine paid for by fund-raising after her story was featured in The Northern Echo.

Mr Murphy is trying to persuade the NHS to pay for another one of the machines, which sends electric impulses to the brain.