TEENAGER Clare Jarrett is determined to lead as normal life as possible despite medical incompetence that has forever impaired her mobility.

A High Court judge has ordered West Kent Health Authority to pay 15-year-old Clare £250,000 in damages after a draining nine-year legal battle.

Clare, a student at Maidstone's Invicta Grammar School, was only two years old when she was struck down in 1989 with a rare form of tuberculosis.

Despite investigations and treatment at Maidstone Hospital, it was a further four years before the potentially fatal condition was diagnosed, leaving the then toddler with irreparable damage to her right knee joint.

Clare, of Ware Street, Bearsted, said: "I don't know how I feel because I have never known anything different. I am glad that everyone supported me and I'm glad it's over. I just wish there wasn't so much fuss.

"I want to just live and have a normal life. I don't want to be seen as disabled. That only makes me feel different and I don't want that."

The money has been placed in a trust until Clare is 18. Some of it will be needed for future operations.