A BABY girl given only a three per cent chance of surviving for a year has celebrated her first birthday.

Mia Freya Brierley was diagnosed with Edward’s Syndrome, a terminal genetic condition that affects internal organs, when she was just five-days-old.

More than 130 family and friends gathered at Sunnybank Social Club in Helmshore yesterday to mark her miraculous milestone.

Her parents, market trader Tim, 45, and social care worker Tracy, 41, said their daughter, whose birthday was on Saturday, was ‘inspirational’.

The birthday party doubled as a fundraiser for Derian House Children’s Hospice in Chorley and Haslingden-based therapy nursery Step-ping Stones.

Mr Brierley, of Edinburgh Road, Haslingden, said: “Mia is unbelievable. Edward’s Syndrome can’t be treated. There is no medication or cure for it.

“She’s going for an operation in St Mary’s Hospital, in Manchester, on February 25 to help with her breathing as she’s not been great recently.

“We had to take her to Royal Blackburn Hospital on November 27 and spent 15 nights there before going home for four days. Then she was back in for another two weeks.

“We’ve been a bit scared to talk about her birthday in case we jinxed it and it never happened. Any infection could kill her.

“The nurses in Manchester, Blackburn and in Fairfield General Hospital, Bury, where Mia was born, have been absolutely amazing. They are second-to-none.

“We just have to live every day as it comes. We were lucky enough to be let home on Christmas Day and I dressed up as Santa Claus and delivered her presents, which is something else we thought might never happen.”

Among the guests at Mia’s birthday party were her brothers Troy, 21, Maverick, 18, and step-brother Hunter, four.

Mr Brierley said: “We wanted to use her birthday party as a fundraising event for these two charities, rather than receive more gifts that she can't possibly fit in her bedroom. A third of babies born with Edward’s Syndrome, also known as trisomy 18, die within a month of birth. The disease affects three times more females than males.

To donate to Mia’s causes, for which more than £500 has been raised, visit www.just giving.com/Mia-Brierley