2003: Sophie Delezio, survivor

ONE of Sophie Delezio's favourite films is a movie starring Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr and a dolphin called Winter.

ONE of Sophie Delezio's favourite films is a movie starring Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr and a dolphin called Winter.

Dolphin Tale is based on a true story - Winter loses his tail fin after it gets caught in the rope of a crab trap and his rescuers then battle to save him. "Anyway," Sophie explains. "They try to give him a prosthetic tail and the first one he hates, because it hurts, and he whacks it and breaks it. The second time he does the same. The third time they use this silicon sock and it works. It's the same for me, when I got the silicon sock for my prosthetic limb it stopped the rubbing and hurting." At the end of this year, the 12-year-old is embarking on family holiday to the US and one of the highlights, apart from a spot of shopping in New York, will be a visit to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida to meet Winter. "It'll be so cool," she says. "We've got a lot in common."

They do have a lot in common, but Winter the dolphin's hardships seem almost trivial when compared to those of Sophie Delezio, the human. On December 15, 2003, the kids in the Roundhouse Childcare Centre, in Sydney's Fairlight, had just been put down for their afternoon nap when a 68-year-old driver suffered a seizure and crashed his Holden Commodore through the wall. The car burst into flames, trapping some of the children.

Seven were injured, two severely - toddlers Molly Wood and Sophie Delezio suffered terrible burns. Their fight for survival captivated the public who willed, wished and prayed for the little girls to pull through. Molly has since made a good recovery. Sophie lost both feet, some fingers and an ear.

Then, in May 2006, when Sophie was being pushed in a wheelchair over a pedestrian crossing by her nanny, she was struck by a car. She was flung 18 metres through the air and suffered a heart attack, a broken jaw, a broken shoulder, a tear to her lung and other injuries. Again, she somehow managed to survive, and thrive.

This year she started high school.

Sophie tells me she's made some wonderful new friends, and catches the bus to school by herself. She's loving the independence and says there have been lots of sleep-overs and shopping trips with her new pals to Warringah Mall, on Sydney's northern beaches.

"My new friends have been just so supportive," she says. "When I went to hospital, for my most recent operation, they visited me and they were really helpful when I got back to school. It means a lot." Until she stops growing, the operations are a constant in her life.

The skin at the end of her amputated limbs has stopped growing but the bones haven't, and they require regular "pruning" to relieve the pressure.

This year she's had three operations and has been trialling a new technique to ensure she doesn't fall behind in her studies: a computer set up in her classroom relays lessons live to her hospital bed, via Skype.

She is looking forward to her wounds healing so she can get her new prosthetic legs, with matching silicon socks. Walking, she says, gives her a great sense of freedom. She sometimes feels a little confined in her motorised wheelchair.

Does what happened to you get you down, I ask? "Na, not really," she says. "I have lots of people who help me and I've done these courses at hospital which help people like me, with burns and stuff, to get through, to cope."

When she grows up she wants to be a nurse. "I have spent so much time in hospitals and most of my carers have gone on to do nursing," she tells me. "I am only 12 and I already know some of the stuff that they know. I am an expert at changing dressings. I also know what it's like to be in pain." She says it would be "like, totally cool" to work in one of the units that has helped her, particularly the burns unit.

"I kind of want to give back for what has been done for me,'cause I've had a lot of help over the years."

And, she adds, "I also know that when you press that buzzer it is really, really annoying if the nurse takes forever to come, especially if you are in pain. When I am a nurse, if I am not busy and the buzzer rings, I will go to the patient straight away. Every time."

ALSO IN 2003:
* Michael Jeffery becomes Governor-General after Peter Hollingworth quits
* Iraq war: Australia joins "Coalition of the willing"
* Daniel Morcombe, 13, abducted in Queensland
* Frank Lowy heads Australian soccer
* Mark Latham becomes Labor leader
* Musician Slim Dusty dies