Memories of Ava will live on, vow parents after seven-year-old dies after battle with leukaemia

Her devastated parents today paid tribute to their beautiful and happy little girl who loved the short life she lived – and have vowed that her memory will live on with fundraising events in her honour.

Ava was diagnosed with the disease in 2012 and underwent months of gruelling treatment including a bone marrow transplant.

Her condition improved following the operation, raising hopes that she would recover but just weeks later she deteriorated.

Her father Mark Titley, a 47-year-old carpenter, said: "She was a fantastic girl and a happy child. She loved life and dancing and will be missed by so many people.

"People will always remember her smile and she brought a smile to everyone's face. She was beautiful and happy and kept smiling through the illness, even when she was going through the treatment. We struggle to put into words how brave she was."

Ava lived with her mother Sam Vincent in Lichfield for the past five years, after originally living with both her parents in High Town, Cannock.

A pupil at St Michael's Primary School in Lichfield, she was a keen dancer and regularly attended ballet classes before she fell ill.

Her parents noticed she was becoming more tired in April 2012, so took her to the doctors, who originally thought she might have anaemia.

Within weeks she had been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia and by September had been admitted to Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Over the next eight months she spent long periods in hospital having four courses of chemotherapy. During one of her stays she even met boy band JLS in the run-up to Christmas when they visited the hospital.

Mr Titley said: "She absolutely loved JLS so she was made up to meet them. She loved music and she was really excited."

A bone marrow transplant was carried out in March this year, and Mr Titley said she was 'doing well' and her hair was starting to grow back.

But by September her condition had started to deteriorate and it was discovered the leukaemia had returned. "We were told to make the best of the time we had with her," Mr Titley said.

"We knew what was coming and we had to prepare for it." Even when her health was getting worse and she was facing hours of treatment that even grown adults struggle to cope with, Ava always put on a brave face and kept smiling, her father said.

He added: "She fought. She went through a hell of a lot in hospital.

"The nurses and doctors work tirelessly on that ward to help these children as much as they can but sadly there wasn't a good luck story this time." Ava enjoyed family holidays to Cornwall, and visited three times in the final months of her life to see Mr Titley's sister Dawn.

Her family are hoping to place a bench on a cliff overlooking a beach in Trevone, Padstow, and are currently trying to get permission from the council for the tribute.

Ava died on September 28. Scores of family and friends turned out for her funeral at the church of St Michael on Greenhill in Lichfield on Thursday last week. An event featuring a raffle at the Stumble Inn in Walsall Road, Cannock, raised £1,275 in Ava's memory for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research and the Anthony Nolan Trust.

Mr Titley added: "We're hugely grateful for the generosity of all the people that helped us to raise the sum and hopefully it will go a little way in assisting with the valuable work of the two charities."