The seven-year-old Hill View Infants School pupil was diagnosed with a brain tumour aged just four months and had to undergo gruelling chemotherapy for a year.

Thankfully, she was given the all-clear, and is now living life to the full.

To mark their little fighter's journey, the family will attend Grace House's Celebration of Life event on Friday.

Angie, 40, of Barras Drive, Tunstall, said: "We have come out of it really well and if we can help other people who could be going through the same thing, that means a lot to us.

"If things had been different Keeva may have needed Grace House."

The first signs of Keeva's brain tumour surfaced without warning in April, 2002.

Angie, a nurse, said: "I was just changing her nappy and looking over her I saw her eyes going round and round like a washing machine."

Keeva, who has two brothers Callum, 16, and Connor, 11, was taken to accident and emergency as her temperature rocketed and she started vomiting.

She was kept in Sunderland Royal Hospital overnight and later transferred to Newcastle General Hospital where an MRI scan and biopsy confirmed she was suffering from a sort of brain tumour called an astrocytoma.

"It was devastating," Angie said.

Keeva received chemotherapy via a Hickman line put in her chest. She spent the first three weeks of her treatment in hospital and then went home and returned to the hospital for chemotherapy once a week.

Her temperature had to be measured constantly and if it ever reached a certain level she was taken straight to hospital.

Angie said: "She was absolutely brilliant throughout it all – nothing fazed her."

Scans in 2003 revealed the tumour had shrunk by 50 per cent and was no longer a risk to Keeva.

"It was an unbelievable feeling," Angie said. "We had a big barbecue to celebrate."

Keeva had monthly MRI scans until she was five and now she has them once a year.

Angie, her mum Cynth Stokell and Keeva will release a silver balloon for Keeva at the Celebration of Life event.

Two thousand twinkling balloons will be released on Seaburn seafront at 6.45pm.

Silver balloons are for a child, gold balloons are for someone special, a green balloon is a Christmas gift, a red balloon is for the love of your life and a white balloon is in remembrance of a loved one.

Donations for a balloon will go to the Grace House North East children's hospice appeal, and can be made by ringing the fund-raising department on 516 6302 or downloading a form at www.gracehouse.co.uk