The parents of a nine-month-old baby, who is fighting a rare form of brain cancer, have set up a campaign to raise awareness of the condition.

Delilah Read was diagnosed with high risk stage 4 neuroblastoma with the MYCN gene present, a cancer which mostly affects children under five and develops from nerve cells, at the beginning of December.

The presence of the MYCN gene means that she is more prone to tumours and more likely to get it again.

Neuroblastoma effects under 100 children a year, with approximately only 2,000 diagnosed cases in the UK. Delilah is under the care of Europe’s top consultant, Dr Daniel Morganstern, who specialises in neuroblastoma.

Her mother, Dannielle Tocker, of Plantation Road, Bushey said: "We are very lucky that Delilah is under the care of Dr Morganstern and as she is under 12 months old she has a better chance of survival. She has an intense treatment plan for the next year to year and a half, so it's good to know she is under great care.

"Delilah was ill for a while before she was diagnosed with the cancer. Originally the doctors found a lump in her stomach, and thought it was a different cancer - but then it travelled up her diaphragm and into the side of her neck."

The lump found in Delilah, who is being treated at Great Ormond Street hospital, measured 11cm x 7.7cm. She also has cancer in her bone and bone marrow.

She is currently receiving chemotherapy every ten days and will have this up until March. Then the consultants will look to operate on her to cut the tumour. This will be followed by three months of aggressive chemotherapy and later on, radiotherapy.

Ms Tocker said: "Because the treatment is intense Delilah needs a lot of care. One of the side effects of the treatment is loss of appetite and we're trying to give 1,000mls of milk a day, but she often throws it back up.

"It's tough. Me and my partner, her Dad Antony Read, have had to take quite a lot of time off work and it may be that we have to give up our jobs too.

The 27-year-old mother of two added: "I have also have an eight-year-old daughter, who has been an absolute star throughout all of this and so have her school."

As Delilah's condition is rare with the cause unknown and few case studies, Mr Read and Ms Tocker have set up a donation page, which they hope will raise awareness of neuroblastoma.

So far they have raised over £1,000. To donate visit: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/8veD1?psid=4a1fedef0ea048d894264b21123b0450.