A BRAVE teenager is returning to a normal life, following a 15-month nightmare for her and her family.

Kimberley Stobbs, 15, is back at school trying to catch up on studies, having missed much of the past academic year after she developed leukaemia.

It was only thanks to her younger sister, Kate, who donated the lifesaving matching bone marrow, that Kimberley was able to set out on the road to recovery.

A year after the transplant operation, at Newcastle General Hospital, members of the Stobbs family, from Burnhope, County Durham, can "see light at the end of the tunnel".

The trauma began when she was taken ill on a family holiday in Scotland, during the summer of 2002, when she complained of headaches, sickness and lethargy.

Following blood tests, taken at hospital on her return home, she was diagnosed as having lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of the disease in children.

The battle to beat the condition began with combative drugs and chemotherapy.

All the family were blood-tested and Kate, then aged ten, was found to have the closest match, and chose to undergo an operation to make the vital bone marrow donation.

Kimberley then received the transplant and amazed doctors with the speed of her recovery.

Her father, Frank, said: "She was in the transplant unit for around 39 days, which they said was nearly a record, as the only earlier release was said to be 37 days.

"We were told it's usually around double that, so she did really well.

"It was a difficult time because only I, her mother, Marie, Kate and one of her aunts were allowed to visit her in the unit.

"They were worried she would easily become ill because she was left with no immune system after the operation."

Her subsequent susceptibility to disease meant Kimberley returned to hospital several times after contracting viruses and infections.

But she has now gone three months without further problem, giving the family hope the disease has been beaten.

Mr Stobbs said: "She has been brilliant.

"It has been some 15 months, but we are starting to get a bit of normality to our lives again."