Doctors told us we had 30 minutes left with our daughter - celebrating Christmas together is the best gift ever

Ellie Newitt was not expected to survive until Christmas but then she was given the ultimate festive present

This was the Christmas Ellie Newitt was never meant to see.

After a short battle with leukaemia , she was given 30 minutes to live.

Her devastated parents were at her hospital bedside, trying to find a way to face the loss of their little girl.

But as Marie and Darren sat in numb grief, watching 12-year-old Ellie’s life ebb away, a miracle happened. She took a breath.

And suddenly her parents knew. They just KNEW – their only daughter was going to survive.

“They told us Ellie was going to die,” her mother Marie said. “We were warned we had half an hour at most.

“So to have our beautiful daughter here, in our arms at Christmas, is the greatest gift we could ever ask for.”