Emily Palmer helps her grandmother cope with diabetes

Emily Palmer was three months when her mother died, and she has been looked after since by her grandmother Ann, 64, in Connah's Quay, Flintshire.

But now her diabetic gran's health is failing, and Emily has turned carer.

She met Prime Minister Gordon Brown before receiving a Woman's Own Children of Courage Award at Westminster Abbey in London.

Ann and her husband Robin took Emily in after the death of her mother.

But since Robin died four years ago, Emily has gradually assumed the role of carer for her grandmother - the woman she has always called "mum".

She's a very nice lady... we have been through a lot Emily Palmer on her grandmother

Emily cooks, cleans, dresses Ann's wounds whenever needed, and even massages her legs which can become painful through her condition.

She said: "I feel very happy for caring for my mum. She's very special to me.

"She's a very nice lady. We have been through a lot."

Describing her typical day, Emily said: "I get up, get out of bed, get dressed. I sometimes get the breakfast ready and things like that.

'Normal childhood'

"I sometimes get my mum dressed if the carers aren't here."

When she comes home from school in the afternoon, Emily continues to help around the house, even helping to dress Ann for bed.

Ann said: "She helps me around the house, everything that I don't do. I can't bend very much, so Emily picks things up off the floor for me and that sort of thing."

Despite Emily leading a different lifestyle to her friends, Ann said it was important for her granddaughter to be as normal as possible.

She added: "She has to have a childhood, she has to go out and play, she has to go to school and do all the normal things that children do.

"It's very important that she has a childhood."

Emily was joined by nine other children receiving awards at the annual ceremony.

The prime minister's wife, Sarah Brown, presented them with their awards and singer Cerys Matthews read a lesson at the Westminster Abbey service.

She was nominated by family friend Maureen Whitfield, who said: "She's rather an important little girl and she does an awful lot for her grandmother/mum - more than a normal 11-year-old would do."