The family of six-year-old leukaemia patient Ellie Davidson are desperately hoping she will be well enough to spend Christmas at home.

She was diagnosed with leukaemia for the second time in September and last month doctors told her family she will need a bone marrow transplant.

Ellie is undergoing chemotherapy at Southampton Hospital and has now moved to Salisbury Hospital to recover for the latest round of chemotherapy and an infection.

Her grandmother Sarah Large said: “We’re hoping she will be able to come out today and spend Christmas at home and then she has to go back to Southampton on December 27 for more chemotherapy.

“She so full of it and she has always been that way, she always has a smile on her face.

“When anyone asks her what she wants Christmas she says ‘nothing’ and as her nan I’m so proud of her for being so brave. The support has been overwhelming.”

After discovering they were not matches, Ellie’s parents Hannah Mortimer and Richard Davidson, of Collingbourne Ducis, set out to get as many people as possible to join the bone marrow donor register.

The Facebook page Ellie Vs Leukemia launched in mid- November and already has more than 2,240 followers with dozens of people posting messages to say they have registered for a ‘spit kit’ to test their suitability.

Mrs Large said: “Hannah has had messages from people we don’t even know and to think that people who don’t know Ellie want to help her find a donor is amazing.”

Family friend Kelly Hall, 29, who lives in the village said: “It’s absolutely horrible to see what the family are going through and everyone is getting behind them and joining the register because it’s a way that we can help and even if we’re not a match for Ellie we can help another family who are going through the same thing.”

Friends at Collingbourne Primary School have written to her to wish her well while she battles the illness.

The letters were organised by teaching assistant Ros Pardoe. She said: “We just wanted Ellie to know that we miss her.

"The children are very supportive, they would write to her every day if they could. We had a school disco on Friday and all the children were asked to donate £2, most gave more, and we raised £170.

“We’ve been having coffee and cake evenings after school to raise money which we have given to Ellie’s family to help support them with things like the cost of petrol for all the travelling they have to do and meals they have to buy at the hospital.”