A SCHOOLGIRL suffering from a rare disease has raised more than £1,000 to pay for research into finding a cure.

Thirteen-year-old Rebecca Parkin was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease a year ago after coping with persistent stomach problems and spending time in and out of hospital.

Although she was relieved to discover what was wrong, finding out there is no known cure was also difficult.

Her mother, Christine, said: "She's probably the best she's been for some time at the moment. She is on lots of drugs to control it, but she's going to have to do this for the rest of her life unless a cure is found."

Rebecca, from Darlington, also has to go on a liquid diet to give her bowels a rest from time to time, but the nine drinks she has to have every day taste awful and only come in three flavours.

The Carmel Technology College pupil said: "It's just really hard not having any food for nine weeks when everyone else is eating and the three flavours of the fruit milk drinks aren't very nice."

After experiencing the diet for the first time, she decided that the next time she had to go on it, she would get her friends and family to sponsor her for it to raise money for Crohn's Disease.

"I just thought it would be nice to raise some money to try to find a cure for Crohn's Disease," she explained

After managing to make £380 from the diet, Rebecca began thinking of other ways to raise more cash.

So, with her two sisters, Amy, 15, and Sophie, ten, she organised a musical coffee evening at St Mary's Church, in Cockerton, when they played music from shows to an audience of about 100.

This made a further £400 with another £300 being raised through the sale of Christmas cards.

Mrs Parkin said: "She's really persevered with it and done so well, we just hope they find a cure.