A terminally ill little girl, supported by her family and pre-school, has been raising money for the hospice caring for her.

Thea Harris, who attends Clare's Little Bears Pre-school in Stevenage, was born with a rare genetic condition called alagille syndrome.

Her parents, Rachel and Paul, explained: "The symptoms mostly affect her internal organs. Her heart, liver and kidneys are malformed and do not work as well as a healthy child's. This leaves Thea with further complications - shortness of breath with low blood oxygen levels, fatigue, jaundice, and the inability to effectively absorb vital vitamins, which has resulted in poor growth and physical development and osteopenia (weak bones).

"Thea has already had several broken bones in her short life and the last was a severely fractured leg which, due to her condition, wasn’t straightforward in its repair. This has resulted in Thea not being able to walk unaided, requiring almost constant supervision and the need for a walker or wheelchair to give her any kind of independence when mobilising.

"Unfortunately, Thea's medical situation is extremely complicated. Surgically, there is nothing that can be done and she is now receiving palliative care."

Rachel and Paul said they wanted Thea to have "as much of a happy and normal childhood as possible, while she is able", so enrolled her at Clare's Little Bears.

The staff "have regularly gone above and beyond to make Clare’s Little Bears more accessible and inclusive to Thea, and have shown an infinite amount of empathy and compassion towards Thea and our family," they said.

"It has been a welcome sanctuary for her, particularly as she spends a lot of the time in hospital."

Clare's Little Bears has held its annual charity summer camping festival at Church Farm in Ardeley and Thea and her family chose to donate all the money raised from the event - more than £1,000 so far - to Keech Hospice Care, where Thea is receiving care.

Clare Cole, who owns the pre-school, said: "We book a private field to enable families to get together, have fun and try camping locally with us as a school community. We do lots of fun activities, like face painting, hair braiding, bear hunt, tug of war, tractor rides, splash pad and barbecue.

"We always ask a family to chose a charity each year and this lovely family chose Keech. They are absolutely amazing."

You can still donate at justgiving.com/fundraising/Clare-Cole14.