THE survivor of a blaze in which her mother died celebrated her fourth birthday yesterday.

Megan Yates still faces major plastic surgery following a devastating house fire in 2003, which claimed the lives of her mother, Gail, 27, aunt Joanne, 22, and uncle Lee, 18. An inquest into their deaths, at a house in Middlesbrough's Pelham Street in August 2003, heard that Gail sheltered her daughter with her body.

Megan was in hospital for 13 months after the blaze.

She still faces skin grafts, surgery to straighten a finger and rebuild her nose, with a possible operation to bring her hairline forward as her head was badly burned.

Grandmother Rose said: "Megan's coming along really well and starting to talk."