THE family of a Bacup youngster with a life threatening illness say they are overjoyed to have booked a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Lapland.

Five-year-old Harlee-Jae Proctor has spent much of her life in hospital due to a rare condition which means that part of a chromosome has been lost or deleted.

Her family have dedicated themselves to completing the youngster’s bucket list and making as many precious memories with her as possible, and in April started fundraising to take her on a magical trip to Lapland.

After hearing about their plight, donations have started coming in on their GoFund Me page and yesterday Harlee-Jae’s mum Sasha-Marie Gill went ahead and booked the trip.

They will be travelling from December 9 until 13, and need to pay £500 by the end of June.

The remaining £2,500 will need to be paid by October.

Sasha-Marie, 25, from Anderson Close, said: “I spoke to Thomson’s about the trip because we went with them on a Make a Wish holiday. They were fantastic and said they would give us a big discount and would also throw in a few surprises along the way.

“We have booked the Crazy Reindeer Hotel in Levi. It looks amazing; we will be going on husky rides and reindeer sleigh rides, meeting Santa and Harlee-Jae and her sister Codiee-Lee can go on the children’s ski slope.”

Although the deposit for the trip has been paid, they still to raise further cash to pay off the remainder of the balance for the four-day trip, which will see the family fly out to Kittila airport on December 16. Sasha added: “We are not going to tell Harlee-Jae about the trip. We want it to be a surprise.

“The plane flies around the Arctic Circle where we will hopefully see the northern lights. It’ll be magical.”

Money for the trip has also been donated by the family of tragic 21-month-old Paul Felix Dragon Carter-Young, known as Dragon, from Waterfoot, who died after drowning in the bath in April last year.

To fund the trip go to gofundme.com/helpingharleejae.