FRIENDS of a Darwen family whose 18-month-old daughter has been diagnosed with stage four cancer are trying to raise money to help with her ongoing treatment.

Doctors will this week decide whether Racheal Flynn’s first course of chemotherapy at Manchester Children’s Hospital has sufficiently shrunk the tumour behind her stomach to allow them to operate.

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Now family friends Carol and Mark Cooney have contacted a Darwen charity telling them about the family’s plight after Mark Flynn had to stop doing his ice cream round to look after his daughter full-time.

He’s also recently been having tests following concerns over his post-cancer liver transplant five years ago and also suffered a heart attack in March.

Carol, 61, said they always bought ice creams from Mark and when he stopped turning up at their home in Maria Street they tracked him down and found out about his daughter’s poor health. “That poor little girl,” she said.

“We are disabled but what that little girl is going through.”

Mark, 57, who lives with his family in Highfield Mews, said: “When we heard about the Cooneys’ fundraising for us we were absolutely gobsmacked, it was completely out of the blue.

“Racheal needs 24-hour care so I gave up my job to help out.

“My wife June is also eight months pregnant and she’s due to have our fifth child next month when Racheal is due to be operated on.”

The charity – which chooses not to be named where individuals are concerned – said it was considering the request.

Racheal is suffering from neuroblastoma, a cancer of specialised nerve cells.

Fewer than 100 children in the UK are diagnosed each year with the cancer and most are under five-years-old, according to the Macmillan cancer charity.

In recent years two children from the Darwen area have been diagnosed with the cancer.

Six-year-old Sam Shaw, from Hoddlesden, underwent gruelling treatment in America and Madison Allan, seven, from Lower Darwen, captured the hearts of people across East Lancashire after she was diagnosed. She died in December 2011 and a charity Maddi’s Butterflies has been set up in her memory.

Mark said the charity had been in touch and had presented Racheal with two bags of toys.

“It’s wonderful how Darreners look after each other,” added Mark.