They would have been watching her unwrapping her presents by the tree, but Martin and Linda Turner are facing their first Christmas without their beloved daughter Kelly.

Kelly died last month at the age of 17, after a two-year battle with a rare form of cancer, desmoplastic small round cell tumours (DSRCT).

Linda, 52, said: “I was so shocked that Kelly died. Even when doctors said she had a week to live I still thought she’d be coming home and that there were signs she was on the up.”

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The loss of their only child, who the Turners describe as “fun-loving, caring, and a real tinker”, is still to sink in.

“I don’t want to stop talking about Kelly or ever forget her as she will always be a big part of our lives,” said Linda.

It was the couple’s dream to send their daughter to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York for treatment and they were well on their way to raising the £1m needed.

Friends, neighbours, businesses and people who had never met the Turners dug deep in their pockets and raised £600,000, currently in probate, to have the experimental therapy.

But the hope of a cure for their daughter evaporated as the tumours advanced in her body. In the week before Kelly died she knew that she didn’t have long.

“I’m going to die Dad, aren’t I?” she said.

Martin, 62, deflected the comment, answering that everyone would die some day and holding Kelly tighter in his arms.

The family had always clung on to the idea that Kelly would pull through and although it wasn’t to be, Linda’s religious faith means she believes that she is just separated from her daughter.

She said: “I know I will see Kelly in heaven one day. We used to talk to each other about what heaven would be like and she wasn’t frightened of dying.”

A member of the congregation at the Beacon Church, in Beaconsfield Road, Dover, Linda’s strong faith has given her a sense of purpose.

Married to Martin for 19 years, the pair who live in Elms Vale, find strength from each other and have been buoyed through the heartbreaking days that followed Kelly’s death on November 6, by the love and support of the Dover, Deal and Folkestone communities.

Martin said: “The people of Dover are phenomenal, we never realised how much love there is in the town.”

But now they feel they must do something more as a legacy for Kelly, a former pupil of St Edmund’s RC School in Dover and Astor College for the Arts.

They want to continue fundraising and have set up the Kelly Turner Foundation to add to the £600,000 already donated and achieve their original target of £1m.

There has been little research into the cruel and rare cancer that affects a very small number of teenagers and young people worldwide and the Turners want to honour Kelly’s wish and give £1m to the Institute for Cancer Research.

The money will be ring-fenced into research into DSRCT and it’s the Turners’ hope that the research will lead to a cure so that no other family will go through the suffering they have endured.

They say doctors are beginning to get some understanding of the cancer.

Christmas this year will be about distracting themselves. There are plans to take Linda’s parents for a hotel meal in the evening and Martin admits he will be “burying his head
in the sand”.

"I know I will see Kelly in heaven one day" - Linda Turner

It’s a far cry from last year when Kelly spent the festivities at home in the arms of her family and unwrapped a gold watch that her parents had bought her.

Now there is a huge void that used to be filled by their daughter’s cheeky humour and big smile. “Kelly should still be here with us,” said Linda.