The five-year-old from the Ribble Valley is battling with an illness so rare that doctors all over the country have not diagnosed it properly, yet but she is determined to walk with her eight-year-old brother Jake and mum Valerie.

Jasmine, of Eastmoor Drive, Clitheroe, was a normal, healthy child up to about 12 months ago when she suffered a stroke.

Since then she has been examined by doctors in Blackburn and Preston as well as Pendlebury Children's Hospital in Manchester and St Bartholomew's Hospital, London.

And just last week her plight was featured on the BBC-1 documentary series Great Ormond Street, where a film crew followed staff as they tried to treat Jasmine and other children whose conditions were something of a medical mystery.

Mum Valerie said: "We have been told that Jasmine has some kind of problem with her blood vessels and arteries which means that the muscles around them pull in and stop the flow of blood to her brain.

"That was why she suffered the stroke but doctors have still not found a complete diagnosis."

Jasmine had been at school at St Michael and St John's in Clitheroe for about six months when she became ill.

Her mum added: "After the stroke she had lost everything - her memory and her speech - and, because it is so rare for a child of Jasmine's age to suffer a stroke, doctors and therapists were not sure how to go about helping her. "My husband David, myself and Jake and staff at hospital have worked hard over the last months to help her learn how to talk again and remember things.

"She wants to take part in the walk, so we plan to start off at Queen's Park Hospital, where Jasmine has been a patient in the past, and walk the stretch down to Ewood Park.

"Jasmine's brother Jake is a big Blackburn Rovers fan and Jasmine is a big fan of Jake's, so it seemed the best part of the walk to do.

"If she is feeling up to it, we might then walk from Ewood to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph office, but we will have to see how tired she is."

In the meantime Jasmine has an appointment with a surgeon in London, who is going to look at the possibility of operating on her to see if he can replace some of the arteries feeding blood to her brain to prevent the chance of another stroke.

Mrs Valovin said:

"It is a chance we have to help others in return for all the help we have been given by very many people."

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