Blind girl, 10, works as interpreter

A blind schoolgirl who is fluent in four languages has become the youngest interpreter to work at the European Parliament - at the age of ten.

Alexia Sloane, from Cambridge, lost her sight when she was two-years-old after she was diagnosed with a brain tumour whilst on holiday in France.

But despite her disability the little girl has excelled at languages and at the age of 10 she is already fluent in English, French, Spanish and Mandarin - and is learning German.

Now she has fulfilled her dream of working as an interpreter after East of England MEP Robert Sturdy invited her to the European Parliament in Brussels.

"There is usually a minimum age requirement of 14 just to enter the European Parliament so for Alexia to interpret there at the age of 10 was amazing," said mum Isabelle.

Alexia has been tri-lingual since birth as her mum is half French and half Spanish and her dad Richard is English.

"She has always been very good at languages and shown an interest from a very young age," added Isabelle, who also has a four-year-old daughter Melissa.

Alexia has dreamed of becoming an interpreter since she was six and chose to go to the European Parliament as her prize when she won the Young Achiever Community Award of the Year.

She asked if she could shadow interpreters and MEP Robert Sturdy agreed to take her along as his guest.

"It was fantastic and I'm absolutely determined now to become an interpreter," said Alexia. "Nothing can stop me."