The mum and dad of a six-year-old girl knew something wasn't quite right when she started complaining of backache.
Stephen Bennett's youngest daughter, Leah, was just six when she was diagnosed with an "unknown tumour" in 2019 after suffering with backache on and off for a few months. After a year of treatment and medical professionals branding the mass "impossible" Leah was saved by staff at Alder Hey and Royal Liverpool hospitals in a risky six hour operation.
Before the surgery took place, staff created a 3D print of the tumour, which measured around 9cms long and was wrapped around her spine and blood vessels.
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Paediatric surgeon Joanne Minford showed it to the worried parents. As Stephen, from St Helens, held it in his hands he said it made the hairs on his neck "stand up".
Stephen told the ECHO in 2020: "Staring at it in front of my eyes was just horrifying - it looked huge and holding it made the hairs on my neck stand up. I held in my hands the very thing that was killing my little girl and that is quite a chilling experience."
Despite the horror of seeing the reality of the tumour, Stephen, realised the medical team wouldn't have gone to the lengths of creating the model if they had made the decision not to attempt the operation. Many medical experts to declared it too risky to operate so Leah received a range of treatments to try and tackle the size of the tumour.
Stephen said: "From very early on, we knew the challenge was to remove the tumour through surgery and to do that, it was felt that chemotherapy would need to have a significant impact in reducing the size of the tumour quite dramatically.
"I was told that the surgeons from Great Ormond Street, Bristol and Manchester had all given the opinion that surgery was not possible for Leah as it would be highly unlikely to be 'in her best interests'."
When Claire, Leah's mum, was told the news in a later meeting, she begged the consultant to speak with the rest of the surgical team to consider opening Leah up to see if there was anything they could do to tackle the tumour. They agreed to operate.
Leah's operation took place on August 1, 2019, but there was only around a 10% chance of the surgeons being able to remove the tumour without causing Leah major harm like paralysis, due to potential damage to her spinal cord, or death. The operation was successful and Leah was discharged in time for her seventh birthday.
Four years later and Leah, 10, is back at school, playing football and living as much of a normal life as she can. On Sunday, July 2, she took part in the 10k Race For Life event at Haydock Park Racecourse with her dad.
This is the first time Leah has been able fundraise alongside her dad, who has already raised money Alder Hey Children's Hospital and is climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to rise money for Cancer Research with seven friends.
He told The ECHO: "It was a really lovely moment to do the 10k with Leah. We didn't know if she would be able to do it but she walked the whole way and then sprinted at the end.
"With training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro there's a lot of going to North Wales and climbing up hills which she can't do, it was a really nice moment to do that with Leah, Phoebe and Claire."
Leah is has been on a targeted therapy since February 2021, where she takes medication twice a day.
Stephen said: "There's no major side effects and it allows her to live her life. It's not going to cure her but he have had stable scans for two and a half years now.
"It allows her to live a pretty normal life and we just need to have her bloods taken every few weeks and scans every six months. There's no better living proof on what science and funding research can achieve."
If you would like to find out more about the group's fundraising efforts click here.
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