A mother has paid tribute to her severely disabled daughter, saying she defied her condition to live life to the full.
When Sharon Miles was born with cerebral palsy and a curvature of the spine in 1971, doctors told her mother Dorothy she would be dead by the age of 17.
However, the indomitable Sharon battled on for 44 years until her death this month.
Last night her mother said: “She had this steely determination about her. Sharon just got on with things.”
Born weighing only 4lb 12oz, Sharon had to spend the first three months of her life in an incubator.
Her mum recalled: “The doctor said, ‘your daughter’s got cerebral palsy, it’s incurable, any questions?’
“All I heard was the word ‘incurable’. I wanted to grab her and get out, but she had to go for a blood test.
“I was told she would be dead by 17. I felt desolate, devastated. I was grieving for the child I thought I should have.”
The child she had turned out to be fighter, who made her and her family proud in so many ways.
Sharon went to Pitfodels School and at age 20 moved into Archway supported accommodation on Westburn Road.
In her youth she was a member of the 11th Company Girls Brigade, despite her difficulties with walking, and in 1986 she was given the Girl’s Brigade Endurance Award in recognition of her bravery.
As an adult she continued to live her life on her terms, and enjoyed holidays abroad.
Her mother, from Northfield, continued: “Even though she couldn’t speak, she liked to flirt. She was very good at ordering people about and getting them to do her bidding.
“Sharon was a great personality, the life and soul of the party. She was so brave, she never complained about the pain.”
In the last five years of her life, Sharon’s condition worsened, and she took up a tenancy in Kincorth with the Sue Ryder organisation.
She finally succumbed to pneumonia at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on April 9, with her mother and her younger sister Tracey at her bedside.