A five-year-old girl who doctors suggested may not make Christmas after being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer is lighting up the festive season.
Bonnie-Leigh Spence's family are determined to make every day the best it can be as the little girl, from Consett, battles stage four Rhabdoid Sarcoma - a condition so rare it affects only eight children a year in the UK.
And now Bonnie is marking the Christmas her family thought she'd never see as she turned on the yuletide tree lights at county hall in Durham on Monday (December 1) night.
Her step-mum Caroline, and NHS midwife, said: "Bonnie has been so excited to switch on the lights. She has always wanted to be famous, so it's very special to her to have this opportunity to press the button.
Bonnie turning on the Christmas tree lights. (Image: DURHAM COUNCIL)
"It's also a wonderful experience for us as a family. We really are so proud of Bonnie, and to be here, together, celebrating something that Bonnie loves and seeing her so happy is a memory we will be able to cherish forever."
Bonnie pressed the button surrounded by dad Iain, step-mum Caroline and siblings Jennifer, nine, Alistair, two, with step-grandparents Karen and Graham also cheering her on.
Despite major surgery to amputate her left arm above the elbow, and gruelling rounds of chemotherapy to shrink tumours in her lungs, she can have no more treatment.
Her step-mum said previously: "We don't know how long left we have with Bonnie, it could be two weeks or two months we have to take each day as it comes."
Cllr Jackie Teasdale with five-year-old Bonnie and her sister, Jennifer. (Image: DURHAM COUNCIL)
Caroline set up a fundraiser earlier this year to help them create experiences 'money can't buy' to make the time Bonnie has left the best it can be.
The council's vice chair, Cllr Jackie Teasdale, heard her story of courage and determination and invited her to turn on the their tree lights.
Cllr Jackie Teasdale (left) with Bonnie and her family: (left to right) step-mum Caroline, brother Alistair, dad Iain, Bonnie, sister Jennifer, and step-grandparents Karen and Graham. (Image: DURHAM COUNCIL)
Cllr Teasdale said: "It was such an honour to meet Bonnie and her family. The courage shown by the whole family as they cheer Bonnie on and do all they can to make every day special, is incredibly moving.
"Bonnie is a very special little girl, and we're delighted that she has done us the honour of switching on our Christmas tree lights.
"It's very fitting that someone who lights up the room is also lighting up our Christmas tree and helping to spread joy to those visiting or passing county hall in the run up to Christmas.