A LITTLE girl whose tragic battle with cancer touched our hearts has been granted a lifeline at the eleventh hour.

After an exhaustive search, which rallied more than 1,000 people in north Kent, a stem cell donor has been found for Rianna Deol.

The six-year-old, of Lunedale Road, Dartford, had the potentially life-saving transplant last week and is resting at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Rianna was diagnosed with the disease in December 2005, and was due to finish chemotherapy in April this year. But specialists informed the family in February that the illness had returned and that by August she would need a life-saving transplant.

Her relatives stepped forward to save her, but when a family match could not be found, a plea went out to the community.

And you responded in your hundreds.

Read the full story in this week's Dartford Messenger