AN orphan with a rare blood disorder has become the star of a documentary.

Sabrena Afridi was diagnosed with thalassaemia, or thal, when she was a baby.

The condition can lead to life-threatening anaemia, but her adoptive parents Amjad and Sobia Afridi found out about the illness only after they had brought her back from Pakistan to their home in New Marston, Oxford.

Now the six-year-old has become one of the youngest stars of a series of documentaries on living with the disease, due to be shown at a charity night in Cambridge on May 15.

She will be handed a thal “Oscar” at the event, which has been organised by Cambridge nurse Preeti Dhanak-Steele and the Thalassaemia Society, for telling her story.

Mrs Afridi, 41, said: “We found out about Sabrena’s illness by accident when she was 13 months old.

“We had to officially adopt her in this country and did blood tests which revealed her haemoglobin was dangerously low.

“Then we had to start giving her daily injections to drain the dangerous amounts of iron caused by the illness out of her body which was very painful for her.”

The little girl has been through a lot in her short life.

After she was diagnosed with thal she faced a battle with NHS Oxfordshire, the county’s primary care trust, to get it to fund a daily tablet to replace the painful injections she had to endure.

Life improved for the family when they finally won funding for the drug, Exjade, in July.

Then in December, a year after the big-hearted youngster gave her Christmas presents to the orphanage she was rescued from, her family discovered thieves had broken into their home to steal her birthday presents.

But according to Mrs Afridi, Sabrena is not to be beaten, and is looking forward to becoming an “Oscar winner”.

She said: “She has been through a lot for a six-year-old. We joke that Sabrena’s six going on 40.

“She’s a very intelligent girl, and is even beginning to ask when she might get her own agent.

“We’re all just pleased to be helping to raise awareness of the disease.”