TIME has run out to send a six-year-old girl with an incurable tumour to New York for vital treatment, despite the remarkable efforts of thousands of fundraisers.

Lily Mckelvey, who lives in Marks Tey, was diagnosed with an extremely rare tumour in the stem of her brain in January.

Her condition is called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG).

Doctors told her parents Jack and Elizabeth their daughter's life expectancy was between just six and nine months.

As treatment is no longer available in the UK, the couple launched an appeal to raise £370,000 for pioneering treatment in New York which could potentially prolong Lily's life.

Gazette:

Brave - Lily following radiotherapy 

An astounding £210,000 has been raised, however time has now run out for Lily to be eligible for the treatment in New York.

The full £370,000 needed to be raised by April - 12 weeks after Lily finished her radiotherapy for it to possibly work.

Despite the target not being reached in time, the couple found out this week the radiotherapy has managed to shrink Lily's tumour.

Jack said: "The radiotherapy sessions have shrunk Lily's tumour by 40 per cent, which is amazing.

"We don't want to ruin the best time she can have.

"We want her to be happy for a good few months and want her to have the best life she can."

Lily and her parents are making the most of their time together while she is not in any pain or on medication.

She is also back at school three times a week.

However, Jack said: "There will be a time she does start to deteriorate and we will have to look at our options when her tumour grows again.

"A the moment the good outweighs the bad - we now need to plan what we are going to do next."

The couple, both 31, are looking into another form of DIPG treatment which could be carried out in Seattle, but it would cost in the region of $1million.

Unlike the surgical treatment in New York, the treatment in Seattle can be carried out when a child's DIPG tumour grows using a type of cell-based therapy.

Jack said the therapy is being clinically trialled as an experimental new cancer treatment and Lily is on the waiting list.

"We don't know how many months we will have of Lily feeling OK, or how many months she has left to live," Jack added.

"But when the tumour starts growing we will have to give her treatment.

"It could start growing in a month or two months, every child with DIPG is different."

To find out more or donate visit, https://bit.ly/31iqdQw.