text: Brave teenager Esther Castle had the chance to hang out on the red carpet with celebrities to keep her spirits up as she fights cancer.
  Esther, 13, from Lancaster, was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma a year ago and has endured major surgery as well as intensive chemotherapy. But she has kept her sense of humour throughout and was rewarded for her bravery by the Make-A-Wish UK charity with a trip to London to see the Brits.
  The Ripley St Thomas High School pupil was diagnosed with the life-threatening tumour in her pelvis after niggling hip pain she had put down to growing pains.
  She had half of her pelvis removed in a operation, travelled to America for proton therapy and underwent another eight cycles of chemotherapy.
  During surgery she had a ‘graft jacket’ fitted so that her thigh bone would have something to sit in, so on top of everything, she is now learning to walk again.
  Her mum Cate said: “Throughout the past year Esther has been incredibly strong mentally. Even through the most intensive chemotherapy she tried to go to school for a few days even though there was a risk of infection.”
  One thing that helped Esther keep her spirits up, was finding out that she would be granted a wish by Make-A-Wish. This was to go to the 2016 Brit Awards at The 02 in London and walk on the red carpet.
  First, Make-A-Wish arranged for Esther, her older sister Izzie, mum Cate and dad Hugh to go on the London Eye and stay at a posh hotel. They were then chauffeured to the Brits where they had a reserved spot on the red carpet thye could get autographs and ‘selfies’ with the stars.
  After much snapping, they were whisked to their seats at the awards ceremony where they spotted celebrity guests and watched performances by Rihanna, Little Mix, Justin Bieber, Coldplay and Adele.