Tributes to a brave girl

She paid tribute to charities the Eyeless Trust, Iain Rennie Hospice at Home and Crossroads, who helped them during Alanya's short life. Alanya also received weekly respite care in Wing, near Aylesbury.
Ms Tanner, who has three other children, added: "All these people have just been completely invaluable. I couldn't have cared for her as well as I was able to without their help and I think it's important for people to know about them."
Although doctors were aware of the different aspects of Alanya's condition - she was also blind in her right eye and had severe curvature of the spine, they were unable to give her family a comprehensive diagnosis and told them Alanya would not live past the age of seven.
Alanya, a pupil at Heritage House School in Chesham, was taken ill at school on October 22, after a six-month spell of not being reliant on oxygen. Her favourite doll Geraldine, which accompanied her everywhere, was named after a carer from charity Crossroads.
She spent the next few days at home being cared for by an Iain Rennie nurse before being transferred to Stoke Mandeville Hospital. On October 27, after testing negative for swine flu, Alanya was transferred to hospice Helen and Douglas House, in Oxford, where she died hours later surrounded by her family.
Alanya leaves her mother Yvonne, her father Dean, sisters Yesenia, 14, Chiara, nine, and brother Lowen, five. Her funeral, which was filled with balloons, took place last Tuesday at the Chiltern Crematorium, Amersham.
Ms Tanner added: "It was horrible rainy day but as her coffin went behind the curtain the sun came out. It was as if to say she is up there now. She is going to leave a gap in the lives of lots of people."
Ms Tanner also appealed for any family who requires a donation of sensory equipment to contact the Examiner. A fundraising campaign by teachers at Chestnut Lane School raised £4,000 to buy the specialist lights for Alanya eight years ago.
Donations to the charities which helped Alanya can be sent to S&R Childs, Pharmacy House, 69 London Road, Headington, Oxford, OX3 9AA.