An 11-year-old girl has been given the first 'glimmer of hope' in more than a year as the fight against her brain tumour appears to have taken a turn.

Maisie Lossau was diagnosed with the tumour - which she has nicknamed Bob the Blob - in January of last year, and spent eight months in hospital undergoing surgery and radiotherapy.

The Spixworth family were dealt a blow this month when results of an MRI scan returned. While they hoped the course of radiotherapy would have killed Bob once and for all, doctors told them it appeared the tumour was growing.

But, following a review of Maisie's case, her mum Dawn has been told the growth could instead be a side effect of the radiotherapy.

A gruelling 12 to 18 month course of chemotherapy which had been scheduled to begin next week has been postponed, to the delight of the whole family.

Maisie was first taken into Addenbrooke's Hospital in February last year and underwent surgery which successfully removed 80pc of the tumour.

However, she suffered a collapsed lung and by the time she came round, had lost the use of her limbs and was suffering from breathing difficulties.

After rehabilitation she was due to return to her Spixworth home but the family were hit by another setback as she had to stay for six more weeks for radiotherapy after the tumour grew back. She finally returned home last October.

'This is the first, of everything we have been through, the first glimmer of hope something is going our way opposed to Bob misbehaving,' said Mrs Lossau.

'We still do not know for sure so we are not going to get too excited, but the fact chemo has been put off for a little while has got to be positive.

'We have got to get through this and we just have to carry on. She is an amazing little girl to deal with what she deals with.'

Faced with the prospect of chemotherapy, the family had reached out to the world for messages of support, and more than 200 have now flooded in to their Facebook page from across the globe.

'We are completely blown away by the support and the love,' added Mrs Lossau. 'When it comes down to it there are some really good people in the world and we are very privileged to have those people in our lives.'

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