A MIRACLE girl diagnosed with terminal cancer has returned to school – only three months after a life-saving liver transplant from her mum.

Lydia Warner, seven, defied the odds to beat pancreatoblastoma – a one-in-a-million condition which affects one child every two years in the UK.

Lydia said yesterday: “I have missed all my friends and couldn’t wait to see them all again. My favourite subject is maths and I’m looking forward to going swimming again. I’m very excited. I’m chuffed it’s all over.”

Medics told parents Kate, 35, and Paul, 39, there was nothing they could do after finding a tumour on Lydia’s pancreas near the main blood vessels of the bowel. Tests showed the cancer had spread to Lydia’s liver, where nine small tumours were growing.

After being told she was dying her parents devoted their time to making the most of Lydia’s final months and travelled to Disneyland courtesy of the Make A Wish Foundation, which helps terminally ill children.

But the couple from Whitley, near Selby, refused to give up. Medics discussed the case with surgeons at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, who said a transplant could save her.

Mum Kate, a children’s care home manager, donated part of her own liver after tests showed her organs were a perfect match.

In April, Lydia underwent a six-hour operation to have her entire liver removed and replaced with a portion of Kate’s.

Yesterday, only three months on, she returned to her class at Pollington and Balne C of E Primary School, after being given the all-clear.

Kate said giving the transplant was a “no brainer”.

She said: “It’s just what any mother would do for their child. When I found out I was the right blood group I just thought ‘it’s up to me then’.

“I feel happy knowing that Lydia has got a part of my liver and she feels happy as well. It’s still very surreal to think about, but it’s unbelievable, she’s a miracle. From the first diagnosis I can’t believe how far we have come.

“From being told she was dying to now see her jumping and laughing with her friends at school is wonderful. We’re really grateful and feel very lucky.”

Lydia was diagnosed with pancreatoblastoma in September 2011 after her parents noticed her energy levels waning.

They took her to Doncaster Royal Infirmary, where doctors told them it was cancer, and doctors at Sheffield made the detailed diagnosis.

Consultants told the family to make the most of life while they could. “As a parent to be told your little girl is going to die and there’s nothing they can do is the most horrendous thing to hear,” she said.

“We tried to make the most of things, we went to Disneyland in America, visited family in South Africa and made a few trips to Devon, which is a family favourite. Every time we were thinking ‘this could be the last’.”

The family learned on Boxing Day 2011 that the tumours had shrunk through chemotherapy, but not disappeared.

Lydia was referred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where specialists said they may be able to cure Lydia.

Surgeons performed the first step of a two-stage procedure last November, removing the primary tumour along with Lydia’s spleen and two-thirds of her pancreas.

Lydia was put on a transplant waiting list, but during a discussion with a donor co-ordinator Kate found she could be a living donor. Kate was operated on at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, five miles from where Lydia lay waiting.

Khalid Sharif, one of the consultants who performed the procedure, said: “We thought we cannot let the family live with this.”

Lydia must take medication for the rest of her life and her hearing was damaged by chemotherapy.

Her younger brother Dominic, four, will join Lydia’s school in September.

Dad Paul is competing in the BUPA Great Birmingham Run half-marathon in October to raise funds for Birmingham Children’s Hospital.