A THREE-year-old girl fighting cancer for the second time has been offered life-saving treatment in America.

Taya Phillips, from Hinton, was diagnosed with cancer in June after previously fighting the disease when she was four-months-old.

This month her mum, Laura, was told the heartbreaking news that surgery was not an option for her daughter as the area was too big to treat but two days later she was offered life-saving treatment in Oklahoma.

They will need to go to America for ten weeks, which means Laura will be away from her other three daughters, Katy, 12, Lacey, eight, Layla-Terri, four, over Christmas.

Which is why her family and friends have set up a fund to raise money for the three children to be supported at home and to fly to America at Christmas with one of their grandparents.

Family friend, Donna Lawley, said: "As you can imagine this is going to be a tough 10+ weeks for Taya's mummy to be separated from her other three children, who will also need to be supported in the UK."

Taya is going to have proton beam therapy in America, which is a different type of radiotherapy and works best on some very rare cancers.

Taya has rhabdomyosarcoma, which is the most common of the soft tissue sarcomas in children, but only 60 children in the UK are diagnosed each year.

Patients who require proton therapy for more specific tumours have been able to access treatment abroad since April 2008.

An NHS clinical panel reviews individual cases and has approved Taya's treatment which will be funded for by the NHS.

The NHS will fund Taya and Laura's travel and accommodation costs.

Writing on Facebook, her mum said: "I've pinched myself a million times to check I'm not dreaming. I can't put into words how grateful I am for this opportunity."

She added: "Thanks to the amazing people who made this possible. You have given my family so much more than therapy; you have given us a future as a family."

Taya's dad, Terry, died aged 26 in November 2012 from oesophageal cancer.

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