Watching Katy Martin play happily with her colouring book, it is impossible to tell her apart from any other chirpy little girl looking forward to her fourth birthday.

But the courageous youngster has more reasons to smile than most of her new friends at Green Meadows nursery in Guiseley. After two years and nine months of almost permanent residence at St James's Hospital in Leeds, Katy, pictured, is enjoying life at home with mum and dad for the first time.

She has undergone two life-saving liver transplants and 48 other operations in an effort to combat the rare liver and bowel disorder she was born with.

At one stage, doctors admit they almost gave up hope as she suffered infections and complications.

And her father Wayne Martin, of The Poplars, Guiseley, said the hospital nearly ran out of the antibiotics Katy depended on because she was so ill.

But today he spoke with pride at the way Katy had battled against her crippling illness and recently taken up her new place at the Guiseley nursery.

"Ever since the second transplant, she has gone from strength to strength," he said. "It is such a relief - she is just your average little monkey now!"

For more than two years, her mother Nichola Lightowler cut back her hours as a flight attendant to look after her and the couple kept a vigil at Katy's hospital bed.

"I would finish work and go straight to Leeds every night and then stay there until at least 10pm, and often stop over," said Mr Martin. "It was like that for two or three years - she was a fixture in the new liver ward before it even opened and all of the staff knew her.

"She might come home for two or three days, but it never felt like she was ours - she was more like hospital property."

But since her second liver transplant at St James's on Christmas Eve 2001, Katy grew stronger until she was eventually allowed home. Although she still has check-ups and takes medication, she has been able to start nursery and enjoy a normal life.

"She's 120 times better than she was a year-and-a-half ago," said Mr Martin. "It had come to the stage where the consultants had almost given up hope on her because it was non-stop infection after infection."

But he said Katy was now getting used to life at home with her mum and dad.

"She enjoys nursery a lot, but tends to keep herself to herself at the moment and play with her own toys," he said. "It is different for her because she has not had much contact with other children until now because she was always in hospital. But these days she doesn't go to bed until 10pm or 11pm and never before her mum gets home if she's been at work," he added. "It's as though she's making up for lost time."