A GIRL who had to have her hands amputated as a toddler after contracting meningitis has rekindled her passion for playing the piano during coronavirus lockdown – and is inspiring others to see the “light in the tunnel” during troubled times.

Tilly Lockey, 14, of Blackhill, Consett, said: “I think what everybody needs to do in these times is to find something they really enjoy that can keep them entertained at home, because it is going to be a really troubling time for everyone.

“I believe we can get through it. People just need to have things they can do, like pick up a hobby, learn an instrument, start drawing or learn a new language. There are so many things you can do.”

She added: “We can treat this time as like a kind of an awakening, to spend time with ourselves and pick up hobbies that we have lost along the way.

“They say there is always light at the end of the tunnel, but I say there is always light within the tunnel, too. We have to walk it through. I think that is the best thing we can do in this situation.”

Tilly suffered from meningococcal septicaemia when she was 15 months old. She was given no chance of surviving, but defied the odds and won her fight.

She has since dedicated her life to raising awareness of meningitis and also gives up a lot of her time helping prosthetic companies develop fun bionic hands for children.

Mum Sarah Lockey, who posted a video of Tilly playing Lady Gaga’s Always Remember Us this Way, said: “I was absolutely mesmerised by watching my daughter sing while she played the piano for the first time.

“We have always know Tilly without hands, but for us it is incredible we see what she does every single day. It’s just her sheer perseverance and determination – to get it right and to be able to do it.

“It is amazing. Specially when you consider that right at the beginning, when she first lost her hands, we were told ‘well she’ll never be a pianist’ or be able to do this or that.

“Tilly has always thrived on that and said ‘don’t tell me I can’t do something’. She will go and do it anyway."

Tilly, who started home-schooling in September, cannot use her prosthetic hands to play the piano, but uses an improvised device made by pianist and composer Michael Mulroy.

She said: “I started playing piano when I was eight. Michael Mulroy read about me online and immediately thought 'I want to teach her how to play the piano'.

“He contacted us and came and spent time on piano with me and set himself a mission to make all these crazy devices to enable me to play chords.

“After a few weeks he had different prototypes and I was giving him feedback to them all. Eventually the end-product had this rake thing on the end, which isn’t very aesthetically pleasing but is very practical, now I use that to play chords.”

Tilly said: “I did not play the piano lessons for some time, because lost passion for a little bit and was getting into other things.

“But recently with everyone stuck in quarantine it was finding things to do. I really like singing, so I thought well I might as well give it a try.”

Tune in to Tilly on Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.