The parents of a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with a deadly brain tumour are desperately trying to fund trial treatment against the clock.

Carys Bradshaw has been given less than 12 months to live after doctors found an inoperable tumour on her brain stem.

Pioneering new treatment could extend her life, but the family need to stump up £218,000 to return to London from Sydney, where they currently live, for the trial.

On average, children have nine months to live after being diagnosed with a Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), and no child has ever survived.

Carys's parents Jack and Rachel, originally from Orpington, have already raised £155,000 in just 10 days, and her godfather Stuart Hill, 38, says there has been a phenomenal response to the campaign.

He has been close friends with Jack since they were kids, and has a daughter the same age as Carys - making it even more difficult to watch his friend suffer.

Stuart said: "Everyone has been really helpful.

"Jack and I are both massive Millwall supporters and they've been really helpful, and said we can fundraise at games and have a signed shirt auction.

"Jack's been a very good friend for years, we grew up together.

"I travelled to Australia in December and we walked along the beach and watched Carys have a surfing lesson.

"We spent the afternoon in a restaurant laughing about the ‘good old’ days and talking about when we were going to get the kids together again as it had been too long.

"But seven weeks later he phoned me and told me the bad news.

"After some headaches over Christmas, Jack had taken Carys to the doctor - thinking she’d just eaten too much chocolate.

"But after an MRI scan two days later, Carys was diagnosed with DIPG."

Jack and Rachel, both 39, moved to Sydney six years ago with Carys and little sister Maya.

They have recently found novel research being carried out in London, by neurosurgeon Professor Steven Gill, which could save Carys' life.

Originally developed for Parkinson’s disease, Convection Enhanced Delivery (CED) may give these terminally ill children hope.

It involves the surgical implantation of very fine catheters into the brain using a dedicated robotic technique, through which drugs are then delivered directly to the tumour.

The risk of children suffering intolerable drug side-effects when chemotherapy is administered by CED is very low, and results to date have doubled life expectancy in the small number of patients treated.

After an initial consultation with the team at the Harley Street Clinic, Carys's family have been told she is suitable for this treatment on compassionate grounds. Stuart added: "Jack's an only child but while he's got friends there, all his family and close friends are here.

"It's really isolating, it's something you read in papers but don't expect to happen so close to home and it's heartbreaking.

"Carys still thinks she's only got headaches, so her parents have to do that grieving process away from her, they need to stay strong for her."

You can donate to Carys's GoFundMe here