RACING round the park on her ‘wheels’ Ella stops for a quick rub behind the ears before setting off full pelt to retrieve a thrown tennis ball.

“This dog believes she can do anything,” said carer, Victoria Bryceson, smiling, as tail wagging furiously, Ella drops the ball at Victoria’s feet.

The six-year-old’s confidence is even more amazing when just a year ago she was dragging herself through the streets of Cairo begging for food.

The lovable dog had been thrown off a building, just for being a stray, losing one of her back legs and leaving the other paralysed.

She had a life full of pain and sadness dragging her sore body around for three years before animal-lover Victoria spotted her in a Cairo animal shelter.

Victoria, who lives in Carlisle, was in the capital on a neuturing programme with the Miracle’s Mission, a charity she set up to protect animals worldwide. “It was just by pure chance I saw Ella. She dragged herself over and pushed against my legs.I knelt down and cuddled her. She was in a dreadful state. She just melted my heart.”

“ Ella had been thrown from a building and certainly expected to die. How she survived such a fall we will never know. But this is just one of the ways that street dogs there are despatched. If left she would certainly have died a horrible, prolonged death. Her body would have become infected and she would have been left to die naturally,” added Victoria.

Ella, described by Victoria as a ‘three-legged angel’, arrived at a UK rehabilitation clinic early last year, and spent the first few days settling in and learning what grass was before travelling to Carlisle to live with her rescuer last August.

After a vet assessment it was revealed the only option for Ella, described as a mixed breed, to be able to learn to walk again, was surgery to fix the broken cartilage in her foot. “She was fitted with a plaster cast first to check that her leg would be able to recover if the surgery is done and the fantastic news was that with a lot of physio her leg movement is becoming stronger every day so she will be having the foot surgery,” said Victoria, 33.

In the meantime, Ella was fitted with a doggie wheelchair and can do all the things normal dogs can do, which Victoria says, has transformed her life. “She absolutely loved it.She realised straight away that she could walk again, but it took a little while watching other dogs in the park that she could run around.Now there is no stopping her. Everyone loves her and people stop and ask for daily bulletins.”

Victoria has four other dogs, one rescued from Oaktree Animal Charity at Wetheral and three plucked from a street life in Malaysia.”I walk these four separately from Ella, so I can give her one-to-one attention.”

Victoria has so far funded Ella’s transformed life, including hydrotherapy, food, toys and bedding, with help from family and friends.

But has set up a Virgin Money Giving Page under ‘helpellatowalkagain’ in a bid to raise over £3,000 to meet vet’s bills, physio after surgery and leg splints. “All I want is to make sure that Ella gets the happy ending she deserves,” said Victoria.