Generous fundraisers inspired by the plight of a two-year-old girl with cancer have smashed a charity target in just one hour.

Ben Lawson has hailed the rallying response to his fundraising page after his daughter Anna was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

The 30-year-old has planned a head-shave with his brother Sam on February 17 as a way of raising money for the Brain Tumour Charity and has been overwhelmed by all the donations.

Having worried that a £250 target was too ambitious he is now cautiously hoping to reach £6000 and is stunned at how quickly the pledges have mounted up.

Ben and his wife Elizabeth faced every parent’s worst nightmare in December when they were told their two-year-old daughter had a cancerous tumour.

Concerns arose when the little girl started complaining of headaches and seemed unusually tired.

When she developed a turn in her eye and became unsteady on her feet her parents took her to hospital, where the severity of her condition unravelled.

A scan revealed a large mass in her brain and she was transferred to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge where surgeons took nine hours to get out all they could.

Complications followed and Anna is currently undergoing chemotherapy in Cambridge and Norwich.

The experience has been life-changing for the family, putting day-to-day concerns into perspective and highlighting the work going on in hospitals and research labs every day.

Mr Lawson, a senior engineer, of Grebe Close, Bradwell, said the family was keen to support the Brain Tumour Charity which carries out research into the type of cancer that Anna has.

The family had also been supported by Clic Sargent and Acorn House at Addenbrookes which offers free home-from-home accommodation to families with a sick child.

He said he had also been shocked by the amount of blood a cancer patient needed.

He added that he had nothing but praise for every person they had come into contact with from district nurses to surgeons, and wanted to thank everyone who had donated.

Helping to fund research would go some way towards ensuring no other family had to go through what they had, he added.

To donate visit Mr Lawson’s Just Giving page by clicking this link.