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Brave Emily Kenny has spent the past year battling through painful chemotherapy and a major operation to remove a liver tumour before bouncing back to live a normal life of an 11-year-old schoolgirl.

Emily is back home at Blois Road in Steeple Bumpstead, and her family are now looking for local support for her aunt, Dr Louise Kenny, who is taking on the challenge of the Great North Run half-marathon in Newcastle on October 1.

Louise will be running the famous race to raise funds for the Children's Liver Disease Foundation, the only organisation in the UK dedicated to fighting childhood liver disease.

Louise, 36, who lives in Ireland, was moved to raise funds for the charity after Emily, who is the daughter of her brother Barry, was diagnosed with a life threatening liver tumour in October 2004. Emily underwent a year of treatment including surgery and chemotherapy, both at Birmingham Children's Hospital and at Addenbrooke's in Cambridge.

Emily's mother Carolyn said her daughter had just started secondary school and was now doing well, despite missing much of last year. Emily had only been ill for a few weeks before her tumour, a very rare form of cancer, was diagnosed at the unusually early age of nine. Her sisters Sarah, 15, and Hanna, 4, as well as brother Jamie, 14, were all devastated by her illness, but very supportive.

"It was a complete bombshell, your whole world just falls apart. We did not say cancer to her, we just said she had a lump in her liver that needed to be taken out." Carolyn said. "We had to tell her things in stages and in terms that she could understand.

"She spent more time in hospital than out, all her hair fell out and she was desperately sick from the chemo. But she did not see other children: she was completely surrounded by children with cancer and they had all lost their hair too. I just tried to make things as normal as possible for her.

"She needed me 100 per cent, so I hardly spent any time with the other children, but they were great, they never asked for anything, they just got on with life. Support from the village was brilliant, and the school, they raised money for her ward and there was always someone asking about her.

"She is fine now, but we just take one day at a time. She is very strong on the inside, but quiet on the outside.

"We were amazed that Louise decided to do the run as she is not really a sporty person, but she has been training hard for it," Carolyn said.

Louise said: "Emily has been so brave and the doctors did an amazing job treating her. She finished chemo nearly a year ago and is now back to her old self. I was with her a lot after she was first diagnosed and saw the devastating affects that the illness had on the whole family. We are all just so thankful that she pulled through.

"I learnt of CLDF's vital work and felt inspired to do something to help. The charity provides much-needed support to families at a time when they often feel very alone, and also funds pioneering research which, as there is currently no cure for liver disease, give families vital hope for the future."

To sponsor Louise's run visit www.justgiving.com/emilykenny and for further information on the work of the foundation, visit www.childliverdisease.org or call 0121 212 3839