TRAMPOLINE star Maya Rockett bounced back from a car crash and defied doctors to win a major competition.

The eight-year-old, of Burnopfield, near Stanley, suffered severe whiplash injuries when the family car was involved in a road smash on the Tyne Bridge.

With just two weeks to go before a regional trampoline contest, doctors warned that she should not compete or even train.

But the determined youngster proved them all wrong. Not only did she take part, she performed a routine she had never attempted before, wowed the judges and won her age group.

Maya said: "Going back to training was hard and I had to have a special mat at the side of the trampoline in case I fell off.

"But I wanted to do it - I love it. It is fun and you get to bounce around all over the place."

Her mother Rachael Rockett said: "We were sitting on the Tyne Bridge in a queue of traffic when a car ploughed into the back of a car behind us, and that knocked into us. The doors were jammed and we couldn't get out. It was very scary for the kids."

"Maya was sat in the middle of the back seat, so she came off worst. We were very worried about her - she lost her balance, had dizzy spells and muscle injuries all down her spine.

"She had been looking forward to the competition and now she couldn't even do a backward roll.

"But she is so determined and in the end she stormed it." After her success at the regional finals, held in Cowgate, Newcastle, last Sunday, Maya and her father, Duncan, will travel to Gillingham in Kent, for the national qualifiers later this month.

The youngster, a member of the Superflyers Club in Sunderland, where she is trained by Rachel Sadler, has one eye on the finals in Bournemouth in November.

"We used to live in Bournemouth and the finals are at my old club," she said, "so I really want to get there."