THE amazing story of eight-year-old Worcester schoolgirl Tilly Merrell has captured the imagination of the world's media.

No sooner had the Evening News hit the newsstands yesterday than the phone started ringing with eager journalists desperate for the miraculous story.

We reported how the brave youngster was able to eat her first meal in seven-and-a-half years on Thursday after US doctors solved a medical mystery.

Tilly, of Borrowdale Drive, Warndon, had been living on liquid meals fed through a tube after British doctors diagnosed the rare condition isolated bulbar palsy - causing everything she swallowed to enter her lungs.

But it turns out she is perfectly normal - American specialists claim the only thing wrong with her is "enlarged tonsils".

Now Tilly - who tucked into a burger with bacon, egg, cheese and ham followed by ice cream as soon as she found out - is now famous across the world.

Her story made the front page of the San Francisco chronicle and there was a reported "media jamboree" at the Lucile Packard's Children's Hospital in California where she was undergoing tests.

GMTV snapped up the story and national newspapers across England and Scotland have been battling to get the Merrell's phone number so they can speak to them on their return.

Tilly and her mum Amelia, her mum's partner Mark, her 13-year-old sister Megan and grandparents Sonia and Trevor are due back in Warndon today.