A seven-year-old girl is fighting a rare tumour which has eaten away part of her pelvis.

Tiffany Rumble, 35, of Church Road, Shoebury, has been living with constant worry for her daughter Fifi, seven, who was diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) in May.

The condition, where a tumour made of Langerhan cells grows, affects just 50 children a year.

Mrs Rumble said: “It all started when Fifi started to suffer pain in her right leg. She was a very active girl - she did horse riding and gymnastics - so we thought she was just being overactive. But the pain persisted. She cried after school, at bed time and it even woke her up in the middle of the night.

“She developed a limp so we took her straight to the GP where she was scheduled to have an X-ray taken. But before we had the X-ray, one day she could hardly walk around the supermarket so I took her straight to A&E.

“We took her to Wellesley Hospital to get an X-ray and MRI scans. Our world was turned upside down when doctors told us she had a tumour on the right side of her pelvis.”

Fifi was sent to Royal London Orthopaedic Hospital the following week, the family had to wait an agonising week for the results. While Fifi was diagnosed with non-malignant LCH, it could mean Fifi may need to undergo gruelling years of chemotherapy to treat the tumour.

If the tumour grows again, she would need chemotherapy.

Thankfully, the treatment was successful and she can now walk, but doctors are unable to confirm if the tumour would spread to other parts of her body.

Mrs Rumble said: “The consultant is getting Fifi to take things slow as the tumour has eaten away part of her pelvis and they weren’t sure how strong the bone is.

“I’m afraid we might find ourselves in a worst case scenario, like Fifi might need to replace her hip.”

Mrs Rumble will be running a fundraising activity, A Very Merry Christmas Fair, on November 18 at Andrews Church Hall in Shoebury. There will be a cake sale, craft stalls and a raffle draw. All proceeds will go to Histio UK to support research.

Mrs Rumble said: “Fifi has remained her smiley bubbly funny crazy self throughout this ordeal which has kept us going. We know it is every parent’s worst nightmare and for that reason I will never stop fundraising for my little girl and others with this condition.”