A TEENAGER who is battling a rare form of bone cancer has used her time in hospital to further her ambition of working with children.

Donna Shaw, 16, has tumours in the bones of her left leg, hip, arm, shoulder and skull caused by Ewing's Sarcoma, which affects fewer than 30 youngsters in the UK each year.

A football match involving friends of Donna Shaw, above left, was held to raise funds for the QMC and air ambulance. The event was also in memory of Luke Elson-Handley, of Ashbourne, who died, aged seven, in a road crash. The match was between St George's FC, which Donna plays for, and Luke's mother's team, Ashbourne Ladies.

But despite being in the middle of intensive treatment, she has been spending her time in hospital helping a 14-year-old patient with learning disabilities.

This has so impressed staff that they have invited her to come back to do voluntary work once she recovers from her illness.

The teenager, of Rosedale Avenue, Alvaston, started spending time with the patient just over a month ago after she gave him a balloon.

She said: "Since then he's taken to me. He has learning disabilities and can't speak. He can only do a bit of sign language. I know the alphabet so I do a little bit back.

"And I've been giving him his breakfast because sometimes the nurses are so busy that I can help them out. I get his food off the trolley, sit him down in a chair and pull the table up to him."

Donna became interested in working with children after teaching dance at her old school, Boulton Primary School in Alvaston.

And she helped organise a sports day for disabled children at Moorways on behalf of Lees Brook Community Sports College, where she studied before falling ill.

Now she is hoping her time in hospital will help her move her career plans forward.

She said: "After all my treatment I'm going to come back to the hospital and do voluntary work. The staff have said they'll give me a job reference.

"I'm going to go to college and do a child care course. I'd like to work in a nursery and build up to working with older kids."

Donna's illness was diagnosed in February at the Royal Derby Hospital and she was sent to a specialist children's cancer department in Nottingham.

She has finished chemotherapy and is now waiting to start radiotherapy, which she will have five days a week for six weeks.

Her dad, Mik Parker, 51, said he and her mum, Nikki, were proud of Donna.

He said: "She's amazed us with how she's handled her illness.

"I couldn't go through what she's been through. She's a very positive person."