Having survived cancer twice before her teens, Caitlin Kydd has had more than her fair share of tough times.

She is now fundraising to give something back to a charity which helped her and her family during the dark days.

Caitlin, from Hawkinge, is now 15 and has been in remission for almost four years. She is vowing to support the charity to help children going through similar experiences.

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Her campaign, called Kisses4Wishes, is focused on social media and aims to raise £10,000 for the Rays of Sunshine charity set up last year. It has so far raised £4,000.

The charity helps grant wishes to children with terminal and serious illness.

She said: “I understand how important something like this is. Medicine is one half of it but then memories and smiles is the other half that you need to be able to get through the medicine.”

Her wish was to see One Direction in concert and meet the band. She had tickets but after being in remission for nearly three years, Caitlin relapsed and was unable to go.

The family heard about the charity, which managed to organise for Caitlin to fulfil her dream and meet the band.

Caitlin said: “If I shut my eyes now I can go back to that time and feel the nervousness and how excited I was.

“I couldn’t see anything, it was pitch black and they were all surrounding me and I was thinking ‘this is fabulous, can I stay here forever’.”

Alison Kydd, Caitlin’s mum, added: “It literally brings some sunshine in those difficult days when things are really hard going. It gives you hope.

“Caitlin had that to look forward to while going through the treatment.

“The promise of having this dream come true really helped keep her getting through each day knowing she was another day closer to it.”

She added: “I think when you’re going through an illness like that it’s so extreme and the treatment is so extreme that you need something on the other end.

“If something as awful as cancer can happen to a child then surely you can make their dreams come true. It’s as simple as that.”

The Kisses4Wishes campaign has celebrity backing.

She said: “You can take a picture of yourself pouting or blowing a kiss or whatever you want. Get really creative with it. Post that on social media with #Kisses4Wishes.

“Olly Murs is our main supporter but we’ve had other celebrities tweet. It really does mean a lot to get that kind of support.”

As well as Olly Murs, the campaign has been backed by One Direction’s Niall Horan, actor and presenter Stephen Fry, actress and comedian Miranda Hart, TV presenter Stephen Mulhern, singers Leona Lewis and Pixie Lott, radio DJ, comedian and former Strictly contestant Melvin Odoomcorr and JB, from boyband JLS.

Caitlin describes her life today as the “new normal” after getting used to the way her body now works.

She is back at school full time and working towards her GCSEs in Year 10 at Folkestone School for Girls.

She said: “I have my life mapped out, basically. I want to become a research scientist. I love biology and I think I like it because of what’s happened.

“I want to help create better chemotherapies. I know I want to leave the country for university. The top one is Harvard.”

Caitlin had to learn how to walk again and sometimes struggles to get from one end of school to the other and occasionally misses lessons because she can’t physically manage stairs and the size of the buildings.

Much of her energy has now been directed to swimming due to the problems she faces with running and walking. She says she has missed out on playing sport and had to find new hobbies.

She now plays the piano and enjoys cookery.

“If you are active it’s always a part of you but if you know you can’t you have to accept it and find ways around it or become more interested in things or new things and adapt to it,” Caitlin said.

“It’s the only thing you can do to be honest. It’s the new normal.”

Aged just six, Caitlin started feeling pain in her knee.

She was an energetic child, always running around, climbing or doing gymnastics.
After a few weeks she visited the doctor and it was thought she might have a slipped knee cap. But an X-ray led to a full leg scan revealing the scale of the problem.

Caitlin said: “I was diagnosed with bone cancer in my right femur when I was seven. I then had to have lots of different treatments to get rid of it.

“I had a massive operation to basically remove most of my femur, including the hip ball, with a titanium prosthesis. I beep going through airport security, which can be entertaining.

“I learnt to walk again and started to run and went back to school. Three and a half years later I relapsed and was diagnosed again in my right humerus. It was really high dose chemotherapy because it was second time around and meant I was even worse than the first time. I had another operation to replace with more titanium.”

She was in isolation for a month with another course of chemotherapy and stem cell therapy.

Mum Alison said: “To sit by and watch it, as a parent, you’re completely helpless. She’s just been amazingly positive through it all.”

Caitlin added: “Everything that has happened was terrible but when you put it into perspective there are a lot of people out there who have gone through more intense things and more horrible treatments. The key thing is definitely positivity.”

Text KISS03 £3 to 70070 or donate via raysofsunshine.org.uk/kisses4wishes and post pictures to social media using #Kisses4Wishes