Microsoft offers to help critically ill teenager computer prodigy "Her chances are still not that good but the doctors say patients can come out of such situations," he said. Arfa pestered her father to buy her a computer when she was five. She later said she had been impressed by seeing one at school. She was only she was nine years, nine months and 11 days when she became the world's youngest Microsoft Certified Professional - a qualification usually gained by IT professional and software developers - after demonstrating her proficiency with the company's software. When one of the software giant's vice-presidents read of her achievement in a newsletter, he arranged for her to fly to the company's global headquarters just outside Seattle to meet Mr Gates. She cheekily asked him why so few women were employed by Microsoft and discussed her ideas for a self-navigating car with developers. "She made an impression through a combination of charm, flattery and boldness uncommon for someone her age," said a report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper. Since then she has appeared on Pakistani TV channels, been feted by business leaders and received a presidential award, becoming a role model in a country where successes in academic qualifications are reported across the media.