CHARLOTTE: A LITTLE girl who won the hearts of Wiltshire Times readers in her battle against terminal cancer has died.

Charlotte Wakeham, eight, from Westbury, died at the Royal United Hospital, Bath, on Saturday after her parents decided to switch off her life support machine.

Bill and Alison Wakeham called an ambulance to their Westbury home when Charlotte developed breathing difficulties in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Mrs Wakeham gave her daughter mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while they waited for the ambulance.

Charlotte's grandmother Wendy Bryant said: "We are shell-shocked. It all happened so suddenly.

"When she got to the RUH she was in a very weak state and could not walk, talk or eat.

"It was breaking our hearts to see her like that, and we wished to God that she would go quietly.

"I am glad that Alison treated her while they waited for the ambulance because she needed to know there was something she could do for her little girl who was so ill."

The plight of the brave Trowbridge schoolgirl was closely watched by Wiltshire Times readers after she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour in June 2002 and given just months to live.

Against the odds she battled on and tried pioneering new treatments, giving her family more precious months with her.

Mrs Bryant, backed by the Wiltshire Times, launched the charity Charlotte's Chance of Life Fund last year and with the help of readers, and Charlotte herself, raised around £30,000 to fund research into terminal cancers and to support other children and their families in the same position.

Charlotte's parents said: "We are simply going to miss her tremendously.

"Throughout all of this she has always thought of others.

"Charlotte was worried about other people and us as her parents.

"She never worried about herself."