A young girl has thrown her special lunchbox off her back to take a starring role in a local dancing show.

Potley Hill Primary School pupil Daisy Gaffney attended a week-long dance workshop at Frogmore Leisure Centre, which culminated in a performance of High School Musical.

This would be a source of pride for most eight-year-olds, but for Daisy, of Foxwell Close in Blackwater, just the chance to bop around like her friends was an achievement in itself.

She was born with a condition called eosinophilic enteritis, which makes her allergic to solid food.

This means a liquid diet is fed directly into her stomach through a tube attached to a machine she carries in a ruck-sack on her back.

Until a year ago she had to carry the machine 22 hours a day — not ideal for strutting your stuff on the dancefloor.

But since then that requirement has been cut to 12 hours a day, opening up a whole range of new opportunities for Daisy.

Her mum Helen, who is the Hounslow Primary Care Trust’s children’s services manager, said: “Daisy has really enjoyed the dance workshop.

“It’s given her the freedom to be with other children her own age.

“Going to the dance school is a big achievement for her.

“She spent long periods of time in Great Ormond Street Hospital which stopped her taking part in anything.

“Not having the pump during the day means she is able to do things and behave like a normal child. Her quality of life is getting much better.

“She wants to be more normal than she is but only having it for 12 hours in the day has given her a new lease of life and independence.”

Daisy has too many eosinophils, a type of white blood cell, in her intestines, which could cause vomiting, chest pain, heartburn, difficulty swallowing, abdominal pain, weight loss and diarrhoea if she ate anything to which she was allergic.

But in addition to the reduction in backpack time she is also taking cautious steps towards eating ordinary food.

Mrs Gaffney said: “She has now started to have meats in her diet to see what her tolerance levels are.”