A LITTLE girl who is battling leukaemia is helping others.

Brave Sophie Edwards, 10, has been helping to raise cash for the charity Candlelighters.

She took pride of place when her grandparents, Vince and Linda Edwards, handed over £1,723 to the charity at Leeds General Infirmary.

The pair run the Boots and Scoots line-dancing club in Huddersfield and raised the money through their weekly classes at The Irish Centre in Fitzwilliam Street.

They began fundraising after Sophie, of Newsome, was diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia back in 2008.

Established in 1976, Candlelighters is a charity formed and run by parents of children who have or have had cancer, ex-patients and the medical staff who treat them.

Based in Yorkshire, Candlelighters provides essential services and support to children with cancer and their families.

Sophie is much better than she was a year ago.

The youngster, who had to stay off school for more than 12 months, packed up for the Christmas holidays this week with her friends at Hillside Primary School.

And now she and brother Sam, 16, along with mum and dad Emma and Andrew, are looking forward to Christmas Day.

Mum Emma said: “She is far better than she was months ago.

“She is still having to go back to hospital in Leeds for check-ups every three months, but it was not that long ago that she was at the hospital three days a week.

“She is so much better. She still gets very tired and she has splints on her legs to help her, so that does limit some of the things we can do.

“But we get by and we are delighted with the fundraising efforts which have gone to help the Candlelighters”.

Back in 2008, Sophie spent 10 weeks having chemotherapy at St James’ Hospital in Leeds before under-going a bone marrow transplant.

This was followed by months in quarantine at her Newsome home and three visits a week to St James’ for tests.