SEVEN-year-old Martha Hanlon lost a ‘huge chunk of her childhood’ to cancer.

Her diagnosis at the age of two catapulted the youngster and her family onto the long and difficult road to recovery.

But despite all she has endured, it is Martha, whose leukaemia went into remission in 2015 after a two-and-a-half-year battle, who gives strength to her parents.

Far from troubled, Martha utilises her fight with the disease as a ‘legendary’ story she can tell to family and friends.

Taking inspiration from her brave daughter, mum Eve will again take on the Oxford Mail’s OX5 Run, raising funds for Oxford Children’s Hospital, as the family marks five years since Martha was first given her diagnosis.

Mrs Hanlon, 35, who lives in Bowness Avenue, Headington, with her husband Andrew, Martha and four-year-old son Patrick (described as the family’s ‘rock’), explained just how important the role played by the children’s hospital was to them.

She said: “When Martha had her diagnosis we were completely heartbroken and just in shock.

“You face the possibility of losing a child and you need a team of people around you who are patient, warm, upbeat and so professional.

“With something lasting two-and-a-half years you need someone who’ll have a sense of humour, who’ll see you through when you’re crying and cheer you up.”

Martha was in and out of Oxford Children’s Hospital for more than two years and received different kinds of chemotherapy as well as treatment with steroids.

Since the cancer went into remission the seven-year-old has passed landmark after landmark, most recently the switch to just two check-ups a year.

Taking on the OX5, said Mrs Hanlon, a history teacher at The Henry Box School in Witney, is a part of remaining in the Oxford Children’s Hospital family, as well as raising vital funds for children in a similar boat to Martha.

She said: “You feel part of a community and it gives you that sense of belonging. There are other families who were in there for treatment at the same time as us.

“Some of Martha’s friends died and it serves as a way for us to remember and pay our respects.

“When we talk about Martha being brave we have to remember that the children who didn’t survive were brave as well.”

Sign up to the OX5 Run, to be held at Blenheim Palace on March 25, via ox5run.co.uk