"Celebrities are just normal people", Renee says in her matter-of-fact way. Celebrating her twentieth birthday surrounded by hoards of friends, Renee could be the luckiest girl in the world. For Renee, her condition has allowed her to connect with people all over the world, it's been the inspiration for her avid writing. The fact that the doctors said she'd die at eleven is something she dismisses with typical wit: "I'm fine as long as I wake up", she quips, "I hear that's very important".

Facing a life-threatening gall bladder operation, it's hard to watch a usually garrulous Renee struggle to get her words past a breathing tube stuck in her throat: "I'm scared". Yet when Renee's mother Edit tells the story of how Renee "chose to stay and fight in this world", you get a powerful sense of the strength of character in this ruined body. The next minute Renee is telling jokes through a cracked voice, and preparing herself for another hospital trip.

Through excruciating daily pain, Renee juggles work as a writer, web designer, and charity organiser. "My work is my therapy", explains Renee, "it's my escape". Hilary Duff and Raven-Symone are just a few of the celebrities Renee has worked with to help raise money and awareness for Children's Miracle Network. Frank Manzo, co-host for Hip Hop in the T-Dot describes Renee as their "internet guru". "The media loves me because I'm 'totally hooked up with people'", she laughs in her self-deprecating way.

Rene has no illusions, and she refuses to be treated like a princess. When her uncle starts talking about how wonderful her new wheelchair is, she jokes: "If you think it's so great, why don't you get one?" Of her absentee father, Renee says, "Who needs a Dad? They're overrated". The way in which she confronts her disability, with humour, realism, and even as a source of strength, makes this a disability documentary like no other.

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