A TEENAGER battling bone cancer is helping her family raise cash to help other cancer patients.

Brave Leah Digby, 14, of Braintree, was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and began gruelling chemotherapy in March.

Her father Trevor, 44, and his partner Ali Gill, started fundraising for Macmillan Cancer Support in a bid to support other families in the same situation.

They have so far raised more than £8,000.

Trevor, of Witham, said: “I can’t help Leah. There is nothing I can really do apart from be there for her.

“This is something I have done to try and help make it better.

“Around January time Leah was getting into her mum’s car, the wind caught the door and trapped her legs.

“A couple of months later she said her legs hurt and she went to the doctors.

“She had an X-ray and went to a specialist at Broomfield Hospital who said they were 99 per cent sure Leah had bone cancer. “

Leah is undergoing treatment at University College London Hospital with the support of mum Sandra and her family hope her treatment will be completed by Christmas.

Rather than wait and hope the whole inspirational family are doing what they can to help others Trevor organised a special fundraising event at Stepfield Snooker Club in Witham last month.

The event raised more than £6,000 with an auction and raffle.

Trevor said: “I was hoping to raise £3,000 – that was our target. We had some really good prizes and a couple of lawnmowers cost- ing £500 each donated from various companies. The raffle tickets sold really well.

“It was a really successful night and we had well over 100 people there.”

Leah, who refuses to wear a wig to disguise her hair loss, encouraged her dad to hold the event.

Trevor, who runs Len’s Lawnmowers in Witham, added: “We asked Leah ‘what do you want out of it?’

"She said she wanted the money to go towards people not having to go through what she was going through.

“I never dreamed this would happen to Leah. She was a healthy girl who was active and played sports. You never think it is going to happen to one of your own.

“This is my way of trying to do something. I feel quite helpless.

“I don’t think it is something you will ever forget. It is torture, it really is hard.

“What she has been through is not just a few weeks, it has been six or seven months of constant hospital visits.”