An inspirational woman has died 16 years after being so ill as a teenager that her parents were advised to switch off her life support machine.

Amid the grief of losing their beloved daughter, Zoe Ripley’s parents have spoken with pride about her achievements against all the odds since meningitis left her critically ill.

Zoe was paralysed from the neck down and even had to combat social isolation in her teenage years, but battled back to enjoy a rich and fulfilled life until her death last month, aged 29.

The daughter of Pearl Meredith and Job Ripley, she started life as a happy, healthy child but at the age of 13 she contracted the illness and the infection triggered a violent and undiagnosed reaction.

Speaking at their home in Smith Street, Strood, Pearl said: “She was a courageous, strong and brave person.

“We’re all so proud of her and we hope that by reading her story it will inspire other people to realise you can still lead full lives, even when you have a disability.”

The adventurous youngster, who was always first on the scariest rides and loved horse riding, dancing and swimming, was left in a coma for two weeks when her brain impacted on her spinal cord.

Doctors believed she was brain dead so advised the family to turn off the life support machine, but Pearl refused.

She said: “I knew she was still in there, her eyes would blink and they told me it was just a reflex, but I knew it was her.”

One doctor believed her and together they worked on rehabilitating Zoe.

Pearl, 54, added: “At first she didn’t cope very well. She was visited once or twice at the start but none of her school friends really bothered after that. She was lonely.

“When we first took her out I couldn’t believe how people were with her. How much people would stare.

“They pulled faces at her, called her names, you’d hear people just say ‘urgh’ as we went past. It made her hate the way she looked.”

It took months and it was a hard slog, but Zoe learned to speak again and from then on she was unstoppable.

“The first thing was that she didn’t want to get behind on school. She was such a bright girl and was doing work a couple of years ahead of her. She loved algebra.

“From then on she pushed for her education, despite everything.

“She was like a light, people flocked around her. She was kind and generous.”

Zoe did a qualification in music technology at Canterbury College and a lot of her carers became close friends.

Her older sister Rebecca Abrey said: “She wanted a full life and she did just about everything any other teenage girl did.

“She went through all the dodgy hairstyles, she even went clubbing.

“Me and her with mum and dad, family and friends would go to Amadeus with a bouncer escort or Jumpin’ Jacks in Maidstone. We’d all be knackered but she’d want to keep going.

“She would go to the Notting Hill Carnival every year and as my maid of honour she loved my hen do at Victoria’s Cabaret Club in Maidstone.

“She was an extrovert, and she was fearless, and that helped her get through what happened. She was the way she was, but she had a life and she really did enjoy it.”

Rebecca’s sons, Lennie and Bradley, were Zoe’s biggest love in life. They would see each other every week and chat every day.

Zoe’s precious little dog Lola, who would curl up on her neck and keep her warm, also brought her a lot of happiness over the years.

Zoe was initially given no more than three years to live, but she astonished doctors all over the world with how she fought on.

Pearl said: “She proved them wrong. Survived against all the odds and became of interest all over the world, they wrote medical journals on her.

“When she was 25 she took me aside one day and said ‘mum, I’m not your baby any more, you can’t keep mollycoddling me. I’ve got to live my own life, I’m a grown woman now’.

“She got her own place just down the road so she was still close, and loved it. We got the flat adapted for her and the people living there all knew her.

“They said they will miss seeing her smiling face every day, leaving the flat with her handbag and little dog – she loved her bags.”