Brave little Ellen (3) needs life-saving treatment and her campaigning family are asking for your help

Paddy Treanor, 43, from County Armagh said the short walk is taking place tomorrow for his daughter Ellen as part of the Bessbrook Duathalon - in a bid to kickstart fund-raising for the life-saving treatment she will require in the USA.

Sadly, only 40 per cent of children with high risk neuroblastoma are alive five years after treatment.

Mr Treanor said his ‘wee girl’ has undergone eight cycles of chemo and a 13-hour surgery and a stem cell transplant.

The last round of chemotherapy had damaged his daughter's mouth, the lining of her stomach and her oesophagus, he said.

"Now we are trying to get her built up because she lost an awful lot of weight," he added.

"It is awful for her, but we have no choice, we have to go through it. I would take it for her if I could, but I can't. There is nothing we can do apart from support her. "

Mr Treanor said Ellen was only two years old when she was diagnosed with cancer.

"In all the recent good weather she wasn't able to do the things she should have been doing like playing in the park, but I hope she will catch up on it all," he said.

"Our other daughter Lucy, who is four, is very close to Ellen and gets very upset when she has to go into hospital."

Mr Treanor said there will be a small fee to join the family walk tomorrow for Ellen but said any money raised will go towards the funding Ellen will need in the US.

According to a post on Ellen's Journey, the Treanor family have joined forces with Solving Kid's Cancer, a neuroblastoma charity, to try to raise money that would allow Ellen to take part in a clinical trial, in the hope of increasing her chance of survival.

"Our hope is that we can get Ellen into remission by the end of her frontline treatment," says the post.

"There are two different clinical trials - both in America - for children in remission. They both aim to stop the disease from returning."

Money for Ellen's treatment can be donated through her Facebook page