Watch: Blind adopted child's musical dream to come true at Coventry Cathedral

A little girl's Christmas wish will come true this year when she performs on stage at Coventry Cathedral.

Thirteen-year-old Lily Bartlett is completely blind but gets by with the help of her best friend and guide dog Hunter.

She had a challenging start to life as she was born at just 24 weeks, weighing one pound, and spent months in hospital before going into foster care.

Music became Lily's saviour, and before she could even speak, she was humming popular songs and tapping out tunes anywhere she could.

Now, with the help of adoptive mum Jane, Lily is preparing to sing with a very special guest in a Christmas performance organised by charity Guide Dogs for the Blind.

She will perform Peace on Earth; Little Drummer Boy with former Coronation Street star Wendi Peters at Guide Dogs’ inaugural Christmas Wishes Concert tomorrow (December 17) at Coventry Cathedral.

This is her story.

Total darkness

Shortly after birth, Lily was diagnosed with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) - a condition which affects around 20 per cent of babies who are born too early to have reached an important milestone in the development of their eyes.

Initially, Lily did have light and dark perception in one eye but lost that completely aged five when her retina detached from the back of her eye.

She now has no vision and lives in total darkness.

The first 10 months of Lily’s life were spent in hospital, undergoing numerous operations and treatments.

Lily then went into foster care before finally being adopted by mum Jane Bartlett when she was 21 months old.

Lily was Jane’s second adopted child, as she already had a 10-year-old son, Shane, living with cerebral palsy and learning difficulties.

'Something special about her'

When Lily first came to live with them, she wasn’t very engaged. She was still being fed by a tube and was extremely small for her age.

Despite her challenging start to life, Jane remembers: “There was just something special about her”.

Lily and her best friend and guide dog Hunter (Image: Guide Dogs)

Early on in Lily’s development, Jane struggled with the assumptions some healthcare professionals made about Lily’s potential.

The speech and language therapist said Lily would never learn to speak and that Jane would just have to accept that.

Jane would not let other people decide Lily’s future and she made sure the family kept speaking to Lily; explaining everything around her and letting her experience as much as possible.

Passion for music

Lily was unable to speak until she was seven years old, but had a passion for music from an early age.

As a baby, Lily loved nursery rhymes being sung to her and made music with her own everyday musical instruments - tapping pots and pans and rattling frozen peas in empty Actimel bottles.

When she was about two and a half, Jane bought Lily a toy keyboard, and before she knew it, Lily was playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Jane says it took a while for her to realise it was Lily playing and not the demo button.

Soon enough, Lily began to use music to express herself as she was not yet able to form the words.

Lily would hum ‘round and round the garden like a teddy bear’, if she wanted to go into the garden.

She would hum London Bridge is Falling Down if she’d hurt herself and Mary Had a Little Lamb when she was on her way to school.

Asked how she can learn chords and verses with sight loss, Lily clearly explains it’s “always music first and words second”.

Learning the piano

Lily has an amazing audio graphic memory; all she needs to do is ask Alexa to play the song for her on Amazon Echo, she’ll listen to it once or twice and then in no time she’ll be able to play the chords and recite the lyrics off by heart.

It took Lily just four hours to learn lyrics to a Latin song her choir was singing.

Lily and Wendi rehearsing for a very special performance (Image: Guide Dogs)

“Lily can’t take her cues from the musical director or conductor. She has learnt to count in her head to know when to come in – but when she does, she becomes utterly lost in time and space," Jane added.

Jane realised Lily had a special talent and at the age of seven decided to get her professional piano lessons.

“Long suffering Lloyd”, as Jane calls him, is Lily’s piano teacher and he enjoys teaching Lily as much as she enjoys learning.

Eighteen months ago, Lily also started professional singing lessons to fine tune her skills.

Lily and Hunter

As well as developing Lily’s musical ability, Jane also wanted to build up Lily’s confidence and independence with mobility.

About five years ago, Jane applied for Lily to have a Buddy dog following a local awareness event.

Unfortunately, the waiting list was two years which was difficult for Lily to understand why she had to wait.

When Lily was finally matched with Hunter, she was besotted and though they looked like little and large – and still do – they soon became inseparable.

Hunter goes everywhere with Lily; walks with her to school; goes to her swimming lessons; choir practice; out to dinner and even on holiday with the family.

Jane said: “Lily used to always hold my hand and have her cane in the other.

"Now she holds her cane with one hand and Hunter’s harness with the other.

"I do miss holding my little girl’s hand but nothing beats seeing Lily’s confidence, independence and mobility grow.

"I couldn’t imagine ours without Hunter.”

“As long as I have Hunter, my music and a Sat Nav, I’ll be able to get through anything in life," Lily said.