A SALTCOATS woman who was flown to Sweden suffering from Swine Flu five years ago whilst pregnant this week spoke of her joy as her son Spencer started school against the odds.

Sharon Muirhead (Pentleton) took ill with back pain back in July of 2009 and was taken into hospital to have her appendix removed.

After her condition worsened she was put in a coma and woke up in Sweden.

Now, five years after Sharon and now husband Brian were told that they may have had to terminate their pregnancy at 25 weeks, four-year-old Spencer has started in primary one at Mayfield Primary School in Saltcoats.

Sharon was transferred to Sweden to have a procedure called Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) where blood is circulated out of the body and oxygen added artificially.

Thankfully Sharon made a full recovery and gave birth to Spencer after 39 weeks of pregnancy but this wasn’t without difficulty because of her condition.

She had to learn to sit up and was in a wheelchair because she had been in a coma for three weeks.

Sharon remembers when she was in Sweden, she said: “I woke up and I panicked.

"I heard the language and didn’t know where I was.” Now five years down the line Sharon wasn’t waking up in Sweden but being woken up by Spencer early on his first day at school as he ran through shouting: “Mummy, it’s school time.” Sharon quipped: “We’ll see how long that lasts.” Spencer’s sister Kieva is in Primary Three at Mayfield and all the staff at the school followed the story of Sharon, Spencer and Swine Flu.

Little Spencer, when asked what he wanted to do for a living when he left school, replied: “Drive,” but when mum Sharon asked what he wanted to do for a job he piped up proudly saying: “Policeman”.

The couple spoke of how the doctors from Sweden came over to see Spencer when he was born and how they do still keep in touch through email and send Christmas cards over.

Sharon also said: “We would love to go back over one day.”