her troubles and step into a Bermuda-style fairytale world on the weekend.

On her arrival at the Airport with her family, Ashley Padgett, 4, was treated to the mesmerising Gombey dance with 20 members of the Warwick troupe performing just for her.

As Ashley -- along with brother Tre, 2, mother Sherine and father Frank -- stamped her feet to the drums she seemed oblivious to her long struggle to beat the rare Dandy-Walker Malformation.

The exhausting regular medical tests and scores of operations the four-year-old has endured since her birth were forgotten as she fell into a trance induced by the dancers' hypnotic swirl of colour.

The family were brought to the Island from their Maryland home in the States for a four-day stay courtesy of the local Child's Wish charity and several other sponsors so Ashley could have a "dream come true''.

And her father was to run in the International Race Weekend's marathon to raise money for the international Grant-A-Wish Foundation which helps other children facing serious illness.

Mrs. Padgett said arriving in Bermuda for a "family adventure'' and seeing the beaches was all her daughter had spoken about for weeks.

"Just having something like this to look forward to has done so much to help Ashley smile. Every day she's wanted to know whether we were going to Bermuda that day.

"I want to thank all the people in Bermuda who've been so generous in donating things for us to do because there's no way we could have afforded to do this otherwise.

"And it means so much to Ashley. She's been through so much and she's never complained about it.'' When Mrs. Padgett was four months pregnant her doctors told her that her baby had a rare condition known as Dandy-Walker Malformation.

"They said there was only two percent chance that she would live and be normal. Only half of all kids diagnosed make it to full term with a live birth and 48 percent are severely disabled.'' She said Ashley had 11 operations in her first five months of life and since then had continued with regular exhausting procedures and check-ups.

"We explained to her that she had a cyst on the brain and that it caused problems for her and she just accepted all the pain that went with that.

"But after a lot of medical help and prayer she has recovered so much that she is now a normal kid. If you didn't know her and were to look at her you wouldn't even realise there was ever anything wrong.'' Mrs. Padgett said Ashley -- a keen dancer and figure skater -- could also speak Chinese, Polish, French and Spanish.

"It's hard to believe that numerous doctors told us that she would either not be born alive, or be born unable to learn, move and coordinate.'' She thanked Elbow Beach Hotel for donating their accommodation for the stay, Bermuda Island Cruises for a planned glass bottom boat trip, Rosa's Cantina and the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.

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