TRIBUTES have been paid to a brave baby who spent her life battling leukaemia in hospital.

Tallulah O’Leary, from Hatfield Peverel, was immediately rushed to Broomfield Hospital with breathing problems when she was born in September 2015.

After a number of tests the hospital told mum Emily, of Mortimer Road, there was nothing wrong.

At five months old Tallulah’s nan, Mel O’Leary, discovered pea size lumps on the front of her head and in her left breast tissue.

In April 2016, after having 17 seizures in three hours, she was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital, where she was diagnosed with a rare kind of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.

Tallulah, who was 20 months old, died in hospital on Thursday, May 4.

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Her nan said: “She was a fighter, every moment she did manage to wake up she had a smile on her face.

“She tried her hardest to sit up and play, the last 10 weeks were horrendous as she was only awake for about a week.”

The family brought her home for her birthday in September but she had to go straight back to hospital.

She came home at end the of October but fell ill within a week and by December she went back to Great Ormond Street.

After contracting the norovirus she remained in intensive care.

Great Ormond Street believed the leukaemia could be in the lining of Tallulah’s brain, but this proved negative, making her a rare case.

Her nan said: “Emily spent the whole year up that hospital. It has been tougher than anyone could imagine and Emily has been so strong throughout.

“The hospital was Tallulah’s home, it was all she ever knew.”

Tallulah enjoyed making music with the equipment in her hospital room and using her baby walker when she was well enough.

When she was brought home last year she was able to go to the zoo.

Her nan said: “Emily was planning on taking her on holiday and to the beach.

“She went to the zoo for her birthday, which she really enjoyed, so she managed to experience a little bit of normality.”

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She said no matter how much pain her granddaughter was in, Tallulah was always smiling.

She said: “Even up until March she was trying to walk, which really shocked us as she was so thin and had no muscle.”

On Tallulah’s support page on Facebook, her mum said her baby had fought like no other, and she was a proud mother who had learnt from her daughter to fight and be strong.

Tallulah’s funeral will be held on Tuesday, May 30 at 3pm.

It will be at Bentley Crematorium and Cemetery in Brentwood and a wake will follow at Benton Hall in Witham.