"She had a splint on her leg," said Jo Walker of the Waitemata Child Development Service, who has worked with her since her parents moved here from India when Muskan was 4 so that she could get good care.
"She walked funny on one leg, it wasn't growing the same as the other. One of her big exciting things was after surgery a couple of years ago, which meant she didn't have to wear the splint and was able to wear her first pair of proper shoes."
Muskan told a TEDx Auckland event last year that she finally started gaining confidence at intermediate school, when she became a class captain and ran some shows for Radio Tarana. Later she ran an hour-long weekly students' show on the station.
"She was running kids' shows," said the station's programme manager Pawan Rekha. "She would have quizzes, competitions, have live chats with them, play their requests."
When she was 9, she heard that the Child Development Service, then based at the Wilson Home in Takapuna, needed an exercise bike. She wrote a book about the Indian god Ganesha and sold copies in the Indian community to pay for the bike.
When she had the surgery at Starship in 2013, she wrote her life story, I Dream, and raised $2500 for the hospital.
She donated a further $500 from more book sales to the Breakfast Club, which serves breakfasts at seven low-decile schools. She also told her story to the children at Glen Innes School.
"It was brilliant, one of the greatest motivators I've seen," said the club's founder Steve Farrelly.
Former Wheel Black rugby player Grant Sharman, a judge for last night's awards, said Muskan had "defied the odds".
"She has just gone and done the stuff," he said. "That put her above the others."
• On the web: www.attitudeawards.org
