A FIVE-year-old cancer patient’s condition is improving after making friends in hospital, her family said.

Brave Madison Allan, who has been confined to a wheelchair for several weeks following gruelling chemotherapy treatment, has now managed to walk across a room without assistance.

The Lower Darwen Primary pupil is in hospital in Germany undergoing last-chance treatment not currently available in the UK in a bid to shrink a ‘spaghetti-like’ tumour in her stomach.

Her grandmother Alison Foster said: “Madison has been very withdrawn because she has always been very aware of her appearance.

"But as she’s got poorlier and poorlier, her looks have changed.

“She’s now very underweight, her hair’s fallen out and her features have changed.

"She stopped wanting to have her picture taken and didn’t want to mix.

"But since coming here, she’s been able to speak to two other English children and an Australian family.

"She sees them running around and I think it gives her something to focus on.”

At weekends the children and their families are able to live in a house with communal kitchen and living areas, where Madison has been playing computer games with other patients.

She has also been on a trip to a zoo with her new friends.

Mrs Foster, of Lord’s Crescent, Lower Darwen, added: “It’s very special for us to see that Madison wants to get out of the chair and walk, and that she has friends to take her mind off treatment, but we still have ups and downs.”

The Madison Allan Appeal has now raised over £45,000.

To donate, visit: www.bmycharity.com/v2/madisonallanappeal.