BRAVE Betty Farcas, the disabled youngster plucked from a Romanian institution six year ago with the help of Thornbury folk, has been given fresh hope of being legally adopted by the lcoal family who have cared for her ever since.

Pete and Clare Brady, Betty's surrogate parents since she came to Britain for specialist surgery in 1999, have now launched a bid to adopt her through the British courts.

The latest move follow years of disappointment and heartache as the family's adoption attempts were constantly frustrated by the Romanian legal system.

"Betty is now coming up to her 11th brithday and we've been trying to adopt her through the Romanian courts for more than five years," said Pete. "There are no objections from her natural mother who abandoned her. But the process was painfully slow and now the shutters came down on Romananian adoptions.

"We've been in limbo ever since but local MP Steve Webb has been liaising with the Home Office and it's now been suggested that we make an adoption application through the County Court in this country.

"We are now waiting for a court date and we don't really know what to expect. It's a pretty unique case as Betty is such an irremoveable part of our family. After all, she's been living with us for more than five years. What the courts have to remember is that this is a child who was abandoned. Her mother did not see her again until she came with me to sign her out of the institution."

Born with a rare condition restricting movement in her joints, Betty was found abandoned in a converted castle in Transylvania where she moved around by shuffling along on her bottom. She charmed everyone she met and in autumn 1999, with cash help from Thornbury, she was brought to Britain by Pete's Holding Out Hope charity which arranged for her to have an operation on her legs at Bristol's Southmead Hospital.

By the time she was due to return to Romania, Betty had taken her first steps and had won the hearts of Pete and Clare and their three daughters. They could not bear to be parted from her, nor she from them.