Remembering ... Claudia Burkill, 8, pictured with her mum, Andrea, has died four months after being deemed cancer-free. Picture: Facebook.
THE eight-year-old girl dubbed the first in the world to beat terminal brain cancer has died in her sleep four months after getting the cancer all-clear.
“Claudia died peacefully in her sleep in the early hours of this morning. Despite her long illness, ultimately, her death is an incredible shock to all that know and love her,” it read. “We urge everyone to treat our family with the grace and dignity that you yourselves would wish for, if you life has just been destroyed in an instant.”
The Burkill family, including parents David and Andrea and Claudia’s siblings Abigail, Esme and Zachery asked for privacy as they come to terms to Claudia’s death.
Brave little girl ... Claudia Burkill has died in her sleep. Picture: Facebook.
Claudia, of Mount Rasen in England, was told she had metastatic pineoblastoma, a malignant brain tumour, at the age of five.
On a number of times the family was told Claudia had just weeks to live and had planned her funeral.
Then in June, three years to the day since Claudia’s mum first called a hospital about her daughter’s health, the family’s prayers were answered.
“Claudia is cancer-free and no longer classed as terminally ill,” Mrs Burkill wrote on her daughter’s Facebook page. “A miracle has happened, it really has. I just can’t stop shaking.”
However since June, Claudia has suffered pneumonia and lung issues, which are believed to have caused her death.