A girl who, as a newborn baby, astounded medics by continuing to breathe after her life support was switched off is now thriving as a teenager thanks to her love of football.
“She was basically dead when she was born,” Holly Dalton’s mother Sherrie says.
Advertisement
“They worked extensively to save her life.”
But Holly’s heartbroken parents eventually gave consent for doctors to turn off the machine and prepared to say a final goodbye to their daughter.
To their astonishment, she took a breath – a “breath which changed everything”, Mrs Dalton says.
She never dreamed of the active life her daughter now leads thanks to Premier League Kicks – a Newcastle United Foundation-run football programme which gives her “a place to forget everything”.
Holly was born following a placental abruption that left her starved of oxygen. Doctors said she would never walk, talk or live independently.
Advertisement
Her early years were marked by constant hospital visits and developmental delays, with diagnoses of cerebral palsy, hearing loss, visual impairment, autism, PTSD and severe anxiety.
Her deafness went unnoticed until she was five.
“They put the hearing aids on and she heard a bird outside,” Mrs Dalton says. “Then she turned to my voice for the first time.”
Today, Holly trains weekly with the foundation’s Neurodiverse Kicks programme and says it has “transformed her life”.
Despite intensive therapy, Holly struggled socially. She was bullied throughout primary and secondary school, leading to agoraphobia and a period where she could not leave the house.
Advertisement
“She didn’t want to live anymore,” Mrs Dalton says. “She’d ask why nobody liked her.”
Everything changed when a support worker from the National Deaf Children’s Society referred her to the Newcastle United Foundation programme, designed for young people with additional needs.
Holly immediately felt at home.
“She didn’t need to mask,” Mrs Dalton says. “It was the first place she truly fit in.”
Despite being visually impaired and deaf, Holly plays on the wing and connects with the ball “nine times out of ten”.
For Holly, the sessions offer something even more important than sport.
Advertisement
“It takes my mind off everything,” she says. “I get bullied a lot but, when I’m here, I forget about it.”
Despite living in Newcastle, Holly supports Liverpool and proudly wears a Liverpool shirt under her Newcastle top.
The foundation’s Premier League Kicks coordinator, Sarah Burn, says Holly’s progress shows the power of inclusive sport.
“It’s more than football,” she says. “Families see their children smiling, confident, laughing – sometimes for the first time.
“Everyone has their own challenges, but they all belong here.”
Holly encourages young people facing bullying or struggling with their mental health to “be strong”.
Advertisement
“Don’t let them get in your head,” she says.
Her mother describes her as a “fighter” and says “football has given her a life outside fear”.
Holly was also recently named the Premier League Barclays Community Icon of the Month for March this year for her “resilience and dedication to the sport”.
Follow BBC Newcastle on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
