A ten-year-old girl diagnosed with a brain tumour in February has ended the year on a high with a magical trip to Lapland to meet Father Christmas.

Nicole Bowers was accompanied by her dad, Tere Bowers, on the trip which was organised by the When You Wish Upon a Star charity.

The charity chartered a special plane to fly more than 80 children from Humberside Airport to Lapland yesterday.

On arrival in Lapland the children were taken to an ‘enchanted’ forest where they enjoyed husky and reindeer-pulled sleighs, snowball fights, and hot chocolate with marshmallows and sausages.

The children were then taken to a hotel for lunch, where they sung carols and waited for Father Christmas to arrive on his reindeer-pulled sleigh. Each child had the excitement of meeting him individually before continuing on to Santa’s Village where the children were able to cross the Arctic Circle and play on a huge ice slide, meet Santa’s elves and send a postcard home from Santa’s post office.

Nicole’s mum, Christine Bowers, said the family, of Wibsey, had known about the trip since November but had to keep it secret from Nicole until Monday evening.

Only one parent is allowed to accompany their child on the trip, and as Mrs Bowers had to work it was Mr Bowers who got up at 1.30am to take Nicole to the airport for the early-morning flight, returning late yesterday.

“At first she was concerned because she doesn’t like missing school but when she realised she would be meeting Santa and his reindeer she was very excited,” said Mrs Bowers.

“I am really jealous I couldn’t go but it is so lovely for Nicole.”

Nicole was also delighted to be on the trip with another little girl who, like herself, has undergone pioneering cancer treatment at the ProCure Proton Therapy Centre in Oklahoma City.

Nicole had 17 hours of surgery in Leeds to remove her rare form of brain tumour, before flying to the USA in May for the proton therapy.

Mrs Bowers said: “At the moment Nicole is really well. She is still in rehabilitation but she is at school full time and overall they are delighted with her progress, but also cautious because it is still early days and it could grow back anytime.

“She needs an MRI scan every six months. She had her first clear one in October and we go back around her birthday in April. That will be an anxious time for us.”