A COUPLE who adopted a Russian orphan were told she had brain damage.

But she has defied their expectations, passed 11-plus exams and secured a place at one of the country's leading grammar schools.

Daisy Clover, 11, spent the first two years of her life in a cot with ten other orphans in the Siberian city of Khabarovsk after her mother gave her up because she could not look after her.

She was malnourished, underfed and had not developed mentally, leading authorities to say she had a form of cerebral palsy.

But, after completing a rigorous interview process, East Hanningfield couple Colin and Sandra Clover flew 12 hours east of Moscow to rescue her from a life of poverty and misery.

Sandra, a 55-year-old barrister, of Old Church Road, said: "I have grown-up children, who are in their 30s, from a previous marriage, but Colin and I really wanted a child.

"But I had five miscarriages and it was a very long journey.

"It took us two years and a terrible amount of grief, but we were delighted to take Daisy from a life of misery.

"Doctors said she had brain damage, so we didn't think she would have much of a future.

"But she does not display any symptoms of cerebral palsy.

"I just think she was suffering from poverty and lack of stimulation.

"Just 50p a day was allocated to look after her, and she wasn't given proper food.

"Children there are kept in such awful conditions that, if they aren't disabled to begin with, they often are when they leave."

The Clovers enrolled Daisy at New Hall School in Chelmsford, and she impressed teachers with her sharpness and intellect.

When she took 11-plus exams this year, she passed with flying colours and was offered a spot at Westcliff High School for Girls, a school declared "outstanding" by Ofsted.

She also got into Colchester County High School for Girls, the 34th best school in Britain, where she has chosen to go.

Daisy said: "I am excited to be going to my new school. I look forward to making lots of new friends, playing sports and enjoying the arts.

"It was hard work and I had to study quite a lot, so I am pleased to have passed my exams."

Sandra said: "We are so proud of her. It makes me cry just to think about it.

"She has a lot of friends. She is so very popular and has lots of hobbies. She likes gym, dancing; she is on the hockey team and the swimming team.

"It's amazing when you think what her life would have been like and what school she would have gone to."

Daisy has already set her sights on securing a place at the London School of Fashion, and her parents think she has all the necessary attributes to become a top designer.

She gets on "fabulously well" with Sandra's other children, and Sandra urged anyone in Essex to help save children like Daisy from poverty.

"I would absolutely recommend it," she said. "It's changed our lives immensely for the better. The Russians are intelligent and forward-thinking people with a similar culture to ours, so they are a good match.

"But they have no welfare system and lots of children are raised in terrible poverty."