Lyla and Lilley O’Donovan team up with Hartlepool world boxing champion Savannah Marshall to send out Christmas boxes for 400 other seriously ill children

Brave Lyla O’Donovan – a Child of Courage winner at last year’s Best of Hartlepool Awards – is sending selection boxes to youngsters all across the country.

And backing her all the way in a very special dream team is Hartlepool’s world champion boxer Savannah Marshall.

Lyla, seven, and her big sister Lilley, 12, are sending off 400 selection boxes through their project called Lyla and Lilley’s Stars. Its aim is to make youngsters feel more cheerful when they are going through tough times.

They have also won the support of Savannah who is helping the campaign to get more donations of selection boxes.

Savannah is an ambassador of Lyla’s and said: “I am really happy to help and support this. Lyla is a big boxing fan and a brave little girl with a lovely family.

"It is nice to be associated with this and do anything I can.”

Lyla and Lilley’s dad Paul, 35, who is from Hartlepool, praised Savannah for her excellent support and said: “She is probably still on cloud nine after her world title but she is still taking time to help us."

Hospitals in Durham, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Bristol, Exeter, Leeds and Manchester are expected to benefit from the selection boxes.

Lyla is helping others even though she has had 10 operations on a brain tumour. On top of that, she is also waiting for news about another up-and-coming hospital appointment.

Lyla’s parents Paul and Kirsty have been told she faces a three-to-four-week stay in hospital where doctors will try to induce a seizure in a bid to find out more about her health.

Despite all this, Paul the Mail how the two sisters wanted to help other poorly children.

"Lyla and Lilley have already done lots of things to help other people during the lockdown and they are trying to cheer people up.

"They had an idea of getting selection boxes and taking them to hospital wards so children can have them over Christmas.”

Paul estimates that around 400 boxes will go to hospitals and he added: “We are really grateful to everyone who has supported us.”

In the meantime, though, the family are hoping that Lyla herself will not have to spend Christmas in hospital.

Paul and Kirsty know that Lyla does have to go back in for three-to-four weeks and will have a lot of tests, including provoking a seizure where experts might find out more on the cause of the seizures.

The aim will be to find out whether they are having an effect on her tumour and causing her brain damage, and whether Lyla faces more surgery.

But if they are not affecting Lyla’s brain, there is a possibility she could go without further surgery and live a life with seizures, said her dad.

Paul said: “She may have to go into Newcastle or Bristol and when she does it will be for three to four weeks.”

Lyla’s story is an amazing one.

As well as the tumour, she has also come through meningitis, been treated for hydrocephalus and had a shunt put into her head, all in the last four years.

Paul is from Hartlepool and the family now lives in Ushaw Moor, near Durham.

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