A father has said the community support to help bring his 16-year-old daughter home from hospital has been ‘humbling’.

Helena Bark, of Wargrave Road, in South Harrow, 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, receiving a bone marrow transplant in July, but has now found out that the cancer has returned and doctors have given the craft-loving teenager only a few months to live.

Friends and relatives rallied around the family, hosting cake sales and sponsored walks in the hope of raising enough money to bring Helena home to be with mother Rosie, father Trefor and her three younger brothers, aged 12, ten and seven.

In just two months more than £9,000 has been raised for the former pupil of Welldon Park Junior School in Wyvenhoe Road, and Helena is now back at home with her family.

She said: “I’m very glad to be home. It’s not so lonely here, and I like having my brothers around although they can be a bit irritating.

“It’s good to have real food too, like roast dinners.”

After more than a year of being apart – with her parents only seeing each other for an hour a week while Mr Bark lived in the hospital and Mrs Bark looked after the boys – the family say it is brilliant to have a home again.

Mrs Bark said: “It is so nice to be a family in one place again, even if we do need to get used to each other being around all the time.

“The boys really love having Helena home - the fights they have had about who gets to sit next to her or help her with something.

“We have all this space now but all they want to do is sit near Helena.”

The house has been remodelled for Helena’s return using the money raised, meaning the dining room has now become her bedroom, with her paintings hanging on the walls and teal – her favourite colour – curtains and bed linen.

Mr Bark said: “The support we have had has been incredible. The church pastor and his wife were in doing the painting, and another guy came over to put up shelves and fencing.

“The guys who put in our new doors were just amazing, worked hard all day and charged us next to nothing because it was for Helena.

“There are people coming up to me and asking about the family that I have never even met, but they genuinely really care about us. It is incredibly humbling.”

The family now hope to spend the money on fun days out and activities, such as a visit to Legoland or seeing the baby elephants at Whipsnade Zoo.