A TODDLER lost her battle with a brain tumour shortly after opening her presents on her second birthday.

Zoe Guest, of Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, died in her mother's arms at Newcastle General Hospital, on New Year's Eve.

Her parents, Joanne, 27, and Mike Guest, who is 29, had kept a vigil at their daughter's bedside, as she spent her last seven weeks in a cancer ward.

Zoe was diagnosed with the tumour after her parents noticed she was walking with a limp and had a bad cough.

She was admitted to the University Hospital of North Tees, where tests showed the tumour, and she was taken to a specialist unit the next day.

But, despite the doctors' best efforts, which included giving Zoe a massive dose of steroids on Christmas Eve, she died, surrounded by her mother, father, and older sister Rachel, who is five.

She had just opened her presents and enjoyed a birthday tea in hospital.

Her father is running the London Marathon, in April, to raise cash for the Newcastle hospital's brain tumour unit.