SARAH Phillips put on her best party clothes, let her mother do her hair and make-up and prepared herself for a night out with the girls.

But the 26-year-old cerebral palsy sufferer who lives in Frindsbury, near Rochester, didn't know a big surprise lay in store for her. She was about to meet her idol, Australian heartthrob Jason Donovan.

Sarah has been a huge fan of Jason since his stint in Neighbours which launched his successful pop career. Although she is wheelchair-bound and blind, Sarah is a determined young woman.

She first met Jason in the early 1990s when he appeared on the Saturday morning television show, Going Live, and a few years ago at the Deja Vu nightclub in Swanley.

Sarah's mother, Linda, fund-raising manager for the Cerebral Palsy Centre in Cliffe Woods, was overjoyed when the Medway Today newspaper told her Jason was happy to meet Sarah again at Amadeus in Strood.

She said: "It has been a bit of a hard year for Sarah and the rest of the family as she has been in hospital a few times, but I knew this would make her Christmas and New Year."