A YOUNG girl fighting a brain tumour has taken a turn for the worse after a miracle drug failed to be the cure her family was praying for.

Eight-year-old Charlotte Wakeham, of Westbury, was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour in 2002 and was given only months to live.

Her family had hoped the anti-depression drug Chloripramine could cure her.

Her grandmother, Wendy Bryant has been searching the internet for drug trials which might help the youngster.

Ms Bryant said: "Charlotte is going downhill quite rapidly now, and the cancerous cells are growing back.

"She is still going to school, but she cannot get up and down steps, she doesn't use her right arm and her right leg gets tired and drags along sometimes."

After a scan in April, doctors found the tumour had shrunk slightly, but they couldn't pinpoint Chloripramine as the reason for Charlotte's improvement.

Ms Bryant said: "The drug has been used in the past to cure a 16- year-old boy, but it seems that the drug works better in older people and teenagers and Charlotte is too young."

Ms Bryant is now talking to scientists working on two new treatment programmes, but says she never expected her granddaughter to make it this far.

"We have had an extra year with Charlotte that we never thought we would have, so I suppose we have to be thankful for that," she said.

Ms Bryant started Charlotte's Chance of Life Fund to help her granddaughter and other seriously ill youngsters.