DETERMINED Ann Whitaker is hoping to inspire others with her autobiography - which the cerebral palsy sufferer typed with just one finger.

Disabled Ann, 39, who lives at Accrington's Roughlee care home, put together her first book after she studied writing at Blackburn College.

She said: "I wrote my story so that anyone born like me will have the chance to achieve what I once thought was impossible.

"When I was a baby, my parents were told by a doctor to put me in a home. He said I would never walk or talk. This is a story of survival against the odds, which were stacked up against me when I was born."

Ann's father, Raymond, 73, of Newfield Drive, in Blackburn, said: "Ann is over the moon about this book. She's had great support from college tutor Joyce Bentley. I think she sees it as a way of repaying her mum Audrey for all she did for her."

Ann and Raymond worship at Blackburn's Sacred Heart RC Church, on Preston New Road, and parish priest Michael Lavin is a close friend.

Ann's book, Giving Life A Go, costs £9.99 and is published by Leeds-based Best Books. It is available in bookshops at Blackburn, Clitheroe, Oswaldtwistle, Accrington and Darwen.