by Angella Johnson

PUBLISHED: 16:04 EST, 31 March 2012 | UPDATED: 13:59 EST, 2 April 2012

It may be almost four months away, but Thusha Kamaleswaran is already eagerly anticipating her seventh birthday on July 20. her excitement is heightened by the tragically unrealistic expectation that she will be able to enjoy the only present she truly wants – to be able to walk and dance once more.

When the youngster – who became Britain’s youngest gangland victim after she was caught in the crossfire between two groups of violent youths – asked her parents if her wish would be granted, they were left in a terrible quandary. how do you tell a bright and lively child, brimming over with energy and enthusiasm, that she is crippled for life?

‘We haven’t told her that the doctors say she is permanently paralysed from the waist down because we don’t want her to be upset,’ explains her worried father, Jeyakumar, known as Sassi. ‘We just said that she will be  out of her wheelchair in time for her birthday party.’

Praying for a miracle: Thusha was finally discharged from hospital on Friday, a year after the attack

He and his wife Sharmila have also chosen to hide the painful truth from her brother Thusan, 13, and her four-year-old sister Thushaika.

Thusha has regained slight feeling in her legs and can, occasionally, move her toes. her parents recently bought her a specially made