KIO KIO - A gifted girl from a King Country farm dreams of her own international school for young achievers, just like the one in her favourite paperback.
For bookworm Tegan Morris, who was born with a type of muscular dystrophy, reading is an escape from thetrials of a degenerative disease that has slowly wasted away her body.
The courageous 12-year-old from Kio Kio, southwest of Te Awamutu, has survived countless operations to become an inspirational example for New Zealand's muscular dystrophy movement.
One of her most recent ordeals was six hours in surgery to insert rods down either side of her spine.
Her sharemilking parents, Sue and Alan, say Tegan's health has never been better since the back operation but her condition will deteriorate over the next few years.
"They wired it all together so it's fixed to stop the back from curving," her mother says.
Tegan, who lost an eye to cancer at the age of 3, is a top student with marks on a par with 15 and 16-year-olds.
A huge fan of the Pokemon television show, she loves to read and rates Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling as her favourite authors.
She has also started to collect a series of books called The Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, which has motivated the young stamp-collector to consider setting up her own academy for talented children.
"I'm going to try to find the rest of the series because I don't really like reading books in a hodge-podge order," she says.
Kio Kio School principal Ian Cumpstone, who nominated Tegan for a Herald Young Kauri Award, said her thirst for knowledge amazed him.
"Not once have I ever heard her complain," Mr Cumpstone said.
"She is an inspiration to me, to her peers and to anyone she meets."
