Dover girl Kelly Turner loses battle with rare cancer

Teenager Kelly Turner was given two years to live

A teenager with a rare and aggressive cancer has died, after raising two thirds of what she needed for specialist treatment in the US.

Kelly Turner, 17, from Dover, was diagnosed with a desmoplastic small round cell tumour in 2015 and was told told she had about two years to live.

People, mostly local, helped raise more than £600,000 of the £1m target.

Posting to the Facebook fundraising page Kelly's father Martin Turner broke the news of his daughter's death.

He said: "Our best little friend, soulmate, bright, intelligent and beautiful Kelly sadly passed away.

Kelly died at 02:45 GMT.

Kelly, pictured before a round of chemotherapy

Singer Bryan Adams helped raise £10,000 for a teenager when a collection bucket was passed round the audience at a concert.

Thieves stole three collection tins from the Dovorian restaurant, the Red House Chinese takeaway and from a bakery in the town in September, and more were taken from a newsagents in Hythe, Kent, in July last year.

The family is now calling on more to be done for the cancer.

Mr Martin said: "Upshot is that there is no chemotherapy for desmoplastic small round cell tumours.

"Research to discover chemotherapy for DSRCT is imperative."