THIRTY years ago 'miracle baby' Daryl Mills defied the odds to become the youngest surviving premature baby to be born at Poole Hospital.

Weighing in at just 1lb 10oz, a normal life for the three-month premature newborn looked highly unlikely.

However, despite suffering from cerebral palsy and having to learn to walk again three times, stoic Daryl has continued proving the experts wrong all his life.

And on Friday, the newborn that doctors said would not survive, celebrated his 30th birthday with friends and family in Canford Heath, Poole.

“It was a good night,” he said. “I just enjoy life, sometimes the leg aches now and then but I've always just got on with it. Life is life, you just deal with it and get on with things.”

At just four weeks old, having suffered a heart attack, young Daryl was baptised before medics turned off his ventilator to let nature take its course.

Daryl's mum Gill recalled: “They took him off the ventilator but he kept breathing for two hours, so they put it back on again. He wouldn't give up, he just kept going “There were a couple of moments when I was called out during the night and taken to the hospital by police.”

Vehicle body repair technician Daryl, who now has the surname Samways, has become a popular figure locally.

Wife Danielle explained: “Daryl's mum was told he probably would never walk or talk but he did both.

“He has had to learn to walk three times in his life after operations and went onto become a totally independent man.”

He is the first of his four brothers and sisters to get married, he also plays in the Dexter ability counts football team.

Proud mum Gill said: “Basically everything he's ever been told he wouldn't be able to do, he's gone that step further.

“They said when he was two or three-years-old he wouldn't be able to ride a push bike, and when he was older he started riding motorbikes and doing motocross.”