Uplifting news: ‘Miracle’ 1lb baby goes home and rare white squirrel spotted

A baby who weighed just over a pound when she was born in December has gone home.

Meanwhile, in Scotland a rare white squirrel has been spotted scavenging for nuts in a garden.

These are some of the more uplifting stories from around the country you might have missed.

– Baby born weighing just over 1lb goes home

A “miracle” baby girl who weighed just 1lb 2oz (511g) when she was born more than four months prematurely has safely gone home from hospital.

Mother Tayla Menear, 26, gave birth to Lilly at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on December 9 last year, 22 weeks into her pregnancy.

Baby Lilly was allowed to leave the ward on Tuesday after four months of round-the-clock care, having grown to 5lb 8oz (2.5kg)

– Rare white squirrel spotted in garden

A rare white squirrel has been spotted in a garden in Perthshire.

Chris Eddington managed to capture images of the animal – which has a genetic condition called leucism that affects pigmentation – after he spotted it while having breakfast at his home in Dunkeld.

The sighting has been reported to Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels, a partnership project led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, which monitors squirrel populations across Scotland.

Ann-Marie MacMaster, the project’s conservation officer for Tayside, said: “Chris’s pictures are some of the best images we’ve seen of a leucistic red squirrel.”

– Wallaby makes a run for it

Police have captured a wallaby that escaped from a zoo and travelled almost six miles into a nearby town.

Cambridgeshire Police said the marsupial, which escaped from Johnsons of Old Hurst, a farm and zoo park near Huntingdon, was spotted in St Ives by a runner who initially thought it was a kangaroo.

It tried to play fight with an officer, who was unharmed, then it was “caught after taking a break in a nearby garden” on Thursday evening, the force said.

– New Banksy artwork ‘a morale boost’, say hospital staff

Staff at a hospital have spoken of their pride and the morale-boosting effect of being chosen to host the latest artwork by Banksy.

The piece, entitled Game Changer, is now on view to staff and patients on Level C of Southampton General Hospital.

It shows a boy dressed in dungarees playing with a nurse superhero toy, with figures of Batman and Spider-Man in a wastepaper basket next to him on the floor.

Paula Head, chief executive of University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, told the PA news agency: “All the staff have described this painting and the impact it’s had on the hospital as joyous, it has made a huge difference to the morale of the hospital and the people who are working in here.”