Supermarket staff swapped the shop floor for grassy paths to raise money for a terminally ill teenager.

Friends and family members of Helena Bark, who has been given months to live, walked five kilometres around Roxeth Park, in South Harrow, on Sunday in the hope of raising £5,000 to bring Helena home.

A former pupil of Welldon Park Junior School in Wyvenhoe Road, Helena was first diagnosed with cancer in September 2013 and has been kept at University College Hospital, London, ever since.

She went into remission last June and received a bone marrow transplant in July to prevent the cancer from returning.

Now Helena, 16, and her family – including her three younger brothers, aged 12, ten and seven – have found out that the cancer has returned and doctors have given the craft-loving teenager only a few months to live.

Helena's mother Rosie Bark, of Wargrave Road, South Harrow, said: “Everyone kept on asking me what they could do to help, so we decided to set up this page to raise money to get my little girl to come home.

“I can’t just go and do a small shop in the supermarket anymore. Everyone is so lovely and always asks after Helena and our family.

“The response has been amazing, just amazing. It’s so unexpected but very much appreciated.

“We have a lot of work to do at the house, but we can’t wait to have Helena home.”

The walkers have raised more than £3,200 in just 18 days. The money will be used to pay for specialist hospital equipment for her return – along with funding family days out or even just a DVD and a takeaway at home.

Heather Exelby, who helped her colleagues organise the walk, added: “This is why we wanted to bring Helena home. One parent is with her at the hospital and one is here with the boys, and it’s a lot of pressure for them trying to organise their lives while they’re split up like this.

“When the family isn’t together, it is 100 times harder for them.”

Harrow Times:

Walkers made the five kilometre, or six lap trek around Roxeth park on Sunday afternoon.

They scheduled the finish The Star pub in South Hill Avenue at half time during the Capitol One Cup final between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, hoping generous football fans would add to their total.

Leading the walkers were Heather, Sarah, Sharon, James and Heather, who said: “We all said we wanted to help, and within 24 hours we had set up this page and already had donations coming in.

“We have watched the children grow up from buggies through to school age and we’re just really giving back to a family who is known by almost everyone in the community.

“Not a day goes past without someone donating to the page, and we’ve all been amazed about the amount of people we don’t know who have donated - it’s just gone viral.

“People have been so kind and it’s just amazing really.”

To add your donation, visit: http://www.gofundme.com/Helena-Bark or like the Facebook page – which Helena hopes will reach 500 likes - at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Helena-Bark/342125299315491