VANCOUVER — Just seven months ago, Susan Oliver was bedridden — stuck in a hospital room with her feet sewn together to facilitate healing following a gruesome ATV accident that left the dancer with serious injuries from head to toe.

But on Sunday, the 14-year-old was back on her feet, not only walking, but dancing, on live television at the annual Variety Show of Hearts Telethon. From the side of the stage, her mother wept tears of joy.

The weekend-long telethon put on by Variety, the Children’s Charity, has grown to be the charity’s largest fundraising event, generating $6,753,012 this year.

“We really appreciate how generous our donors were this year,” said Variety president Dave McConachie.

“We want our supporters to know that the money raised this weekend will go a long way to help children and organizations across the province.”

Oliver’s performance on Sunday afternoon demonstrated not only her remarkable resilience, but the effect Variety has on roughly 1,300 B.C. families every year.

For those with nowhere else to turn, the charity assists with a range of expenses, from parking and transit passes — for someone who requires frequent visits to a hospital, for example — to medical equipment and therapy sessions.

Variety is covering the costs of Oliver’s $1,800 Jobst pressure garments — of which she will require numerous sets over two years to help control scar formation and curb fluid retention — as well as physiotherapy sessions.

Executive director Barbie Hislop said Oliver is what the charity calls a “preventable.”

“A lot of people think of Variety as helping children who are born with special needs,” she said.

“Many children get special needs through their lifetime: They can get cancer and then come out of being a special-needs child if they go into remission, or they can have a near-drowning, or a burn.”

Following Oliver’s accident, her parents, Nicholas and Patricia, didn’t know if she would ever dance again.

But their worries were put to rest when their daughter, dressed in a proper tutu and accompanied by two Ballet BC dancers, put on a graceful, three-minute performance on Sunday afternoon.

To prepare for the big occasion, Oliver had about six 90-minute long training sessions with Emily Molnar, artistic director of Ballet BC.

“It’s not a lot,” Molnar told The Sun during the course of training. “For three minutes of choreography, I should probably have between 10 and 20 hours with her. She’s doing remarkably well.”

Molnar said Oliver was “lovely” to work with — diligent and focused. If she was ever nervous about her performance on live television, Molnar never caught on.

Oliver’s excitement was noticeable when the Ballet BC dancers joined her in the training sessions, Molnar said.

“To me, the big change was when the two men came in and started to dance with her, and treated her as an equal, professional dancer,” she said. “I could see in her face that it was a dream come true for her.”