A FOUR-year-old girl is seriously ill in hospital after the cancer her family believed she had beaten returned.

Madison Allan is being treated for neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer that affects nerve cells, at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

Her parents Mark and Samantha are keeping a vigil at her bedside. Family and friends have been praying for Madison after doctors said she needed chemotheraphy which will make her very ill and cause her hair to fall out.

She was first diagnosed with a large ‘spaghetti-like’ tumour in her stomach when she was 10 months old and shortly after underwent chemotherapy which shrank it to a quarter of its original size.

The family, of Lords Crescent, Lower Darwen, were told by doctors that she would always have the tumour, but it would not grow and would not affect her further.

But last month they were given the devastating news that the cancer had grown aggressively and surgeons would be unable to operate as the tumour is wrapped around her internal organs.

Madison’s grandmother Alison Foster said: “About six weeks ago she started to complain of stomach pains which became more frequent, and we got worried about the situation.

“Madison’s mum Samantha took her for a scan and instinctively knew something wasn’t right.

“The consultant said that the tumour had grown to three times the size it was when she was 10-months-old and it was wrapped around her spleen and into her blood supply.

“Basically her whole stomach is riddled with cancer.

“They can’t operate because it is wrapped around all her major organs and she would bleed to death.

“We have no idea why it’s come back, and why it’s come back so aggressively.

“Samantha said to me the other night that she never thought we’d be going through this again.”

Doctors carried out a biopsy on Madison’s stomach on Tuesday and she was taken into Intensive Care while she recovered.

On Wednesday she came down with a chest infection and had to be put on oxygen.

When she has recovered from the infection, she will undergo an intensive 18 week course of chemotherapy to reduce the tumour again.

Mrs Foster said: “We know the chemo is going to make her very, very poorly and we’ve told her that she will lose her hair.

“She’s such a girly girl and doesn’t want that to happen, but we’ve told her it’s to make her better.

“We just have to hope that this treatment works and it can be made small enough for them to operate.

“We’re all so so scared. When she had her first lot of chemo as a baby it never crossed my mind that we might lose her, but recently I’ve been thinking that.

“Lots of people say that they’ve been praying for her, but I don’t know about the power of prayer anymore.

“I don’t understand why this can happen to a child.”

Madison was due to start in the reception class at Lower Darwen Primary School in September, but this now looks uncertain.

Until she was taken into hospital on Monday, she had been taking part in dancing and swimming classes and the day before had taken a dance exam.

Mrs Foster said: “She is a very determined little girl - a real figher. Even though she was in pain it didn’t stop her taking the exam.

“She is most definately an inspiration to all of us. She has touched everyone’s hearts.”

Madison’s family have raised thousands of pounds for the Five Star Scanner Appeal at the new Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital since the tumour was first found.

The campaign needs £1million for a new Magnetic Resonance (MRI) scanner that will mean tumours can be diagnosed sooner and be seen more clearly. They have got £750,000 so far.

Mrs Foster said: “It’s really important that we push on with raising money through the Quid for a Kid campaign.

“We don’t know now whether Madison will get to use it, but we have to do this for other children.”

Fewer than 100 children are diagnosed with neuroblastoma in the UK each year.

Most children who get this cancer are younger than five-years-old.

It can occur anywhere in the body, but it most often occurs in one of the adrenal glands in the abdomen.

Susanne Davies of The Neuroblastoma Society said: “It is quite common that the cancer returns in patients with neuroblastoma and that is why the survival rate is low.

“It is a very uncommon cancer, and one that people only tend to hear about when their child gets it.”

To donate to the Five Star Appeal, visit the website below.