Teenage cancer victim Kelly Turner has has been given a precious birthday gift of hope.

The Dover girl, who turned 17 today, has raised more than half the £1 million needed for lifesaving treatment for a rare form of the disease.

The figure stood at £500,870 yesterday (Thursday) according to her JustGiving page.

A message on the Kelly Turner Fundraising page this week said: “Has everyone noticed that we’re now at 50% of our target! Thank you so much everyone for supporting Kelly. Still need to push on to get the rest for all the treatment.

“The plan is still for Kelly to have her surgery in New York after her GCSEs, which is her choice, all being well with her next set of scans which are on the 27th of this month.”

Kelly has a rare teenage cancer called desmoplastic round cells tumours and treatment is not available in Britain.

The surgery and immunotherapy now has to be done at the world specialist Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

She had been given only two years to live when originally diagnosed in October 2015 but chemotherapy in the UK has bought her time by shrinking and stabilising tumours.

The Memorial Sloan has also lowered the bar by agreeing to carry out the surgery once approximately £400,000 was raised, having originally wanted all the £1 million upfront before any treatment.

Since an appeal to help her was launched last summer there has been a tidal wave of support for her in Dover and beyond. Fundraising events being held for her almost every single week and generous cash donations from well-wishers.

One of the hardiest fundraisers is Andy Stroud, of Dover, who is this week is going more than halfway up the highest mountain.

Mr Stroud, 36, planned to cover 85 miles over 12 days at Mount Everest, starting at an elevation of 2,860 metres above sea level and reaching 5,545 metres.

Temperatures can get as low as -23C out there and he told Kent Online in a private Facebook message: “It’s going well I’m had a little altitude sickness but seem to be OK now so fingers crossed I’ll be okay for getting to base camp.”

Others who have physically endured for Kelly have included John Ashman, 50, who slept rough for seven nights in January during some of the coldest nights of the winter.

He almost tripled his fundraising target of £5,000, raising £14,000.

Kelly has met and had support from a number of celebrities including Canadian singer Bryan Adams and Ricky Wilson, singer for the band the Kaiser Chiefs.

In February Hollywood star James McAvoy gave £50,000 to her appeal after he met her at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, Surrey, where she received chemotherapy.