Pride in Medway winner Anita Marinelli is planning to start her own charity to help support families with children who have life-threatening illnesses.

The mother-of-two put her life on hold for almost a year to lead a campaign to help raise £500,000 for her friend’s daughter, Ruby Young, after she was diagnosed with the aggressive childhood cancer neuroblastoma.

The cash was needed for lifesaving treatment in the USA if Ruby’s treatment in the UK proved unsuccessful.

Now Mrs Marinelli, from Gillingham, is launching her own charity, My Shining Star, to help other families.

The 34-year-old said: “I want to be able to stop a family from worrying about how they’re going to pay their mortgage for a couple of months, or to help a child whose parents are busy in and out of hospital with their sibling.

“Ruby was in hospital for months and without the tremendous support and love shown from a massive community, the stress and worry, along with a child with cancer, would have been too great.

'What’s the point of winning Pride in Medway if you’re not going to do anything?' - Anita Marinelli

“If there’s another child or family who are desperately fundraising, we want to be able to give them that money.

“We’ve already had a few charity meetings but I wouldn’t be able to do this without the support of my friends who were strangers before I started fundraising for Ruby.”

Mrs Marinelli was named overall winner of Pride in Medway at a presentation night in April.

She said: “What’s the point of winning Pride in Medway if you’re not going to do anything? It’s such a massive achievement and it gives me credibility.” Her father Tony Whibley died in 2014 from a cardiac arrest at the age of 53 and Mrs Marinelli said helping Ruby became a distraction as she struggled to cope.

She named the charity in honour of him and her younger daughter, Eliza, three, who spent a lot of time in hospital with pneumonia.

Now Anita, who is also mum to Olivia, six, needs to raise at least £5,000 to register her charity.