A BRAVE little girl living with an immune deficiency that means she cannot play outside safely with other children has had her dream come true.

Three-year-old Beatrice “Bea” Todd, from Stowmarket, became very ill when she was just a few months old and has spent about a year of her short life in hospital and has undergone a major bone marrow transplant.

But she finally returned home in February and despite having to make regular visits to hospital and undergo various tests, her mother Anna Todd is trying to give her as normal a childhood as possible.

Miss Todd and her fiance Chris Peck, Bea’s father, live in Stowmarket and during their time at Great Ormond Street Hospital, the staff became so fond of Bea that they put her forward to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The Foundation is a charity aimed at making the wishes of seriously ill children come true. When asked, Bea said that all she wanted was to be able to play safely outside after spending months confined to a hospital room.

She loves playing on the swings in the park but is only able to go when no other children are about, for fear of infection.

So, to make her dream a reality, the foundation funded a fantastic playground just for Bea, right in her back garden.

Miss Todd, 33, said she was overwhelmed by the work of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and that Bea goes out to play on the climbing frame, monkey bars and swing every day, in a safe and secure space.

She said: “We have a nice local playground that we would drive to and we used to take her up there, but she would say ‘Oh mummy, there are children on there - we can’t go on’ and we would have to drive away.

“If she got chicken pox or flu it could be life-threatening.

“We just want to say a huge thank you to Make-A-Wish for granting Bea’s wish for a playground of her own.

“It looks great and is amazing stuff, so bouncy. Bea absolutely loves the whole thing and has been out on it every day without fail.

“In the last few days she has managed to climb up the climbing wall on her own and is so chuffed with herself. This is a little girl who had lost the ability to walk in February and has been slowly getting more confident on her feet. I’m sure the climbing frame will do wonders for her physiotherapy.”

Make-A-Wish even provided specialist safety surfacing, which is essential for Bea due to her low platelet count which means she bruises and bleeds easily.

There are currently 20,000 children and young people in the UK fighting a life-threatening illness. By 2012, Make-A-Wish aims to be granting 1,000 wishes a year. To grant these, the charity needs to raise at least �5 million in 2010.

To sponsor a wish like Bea’s or refer a child for a wish, call the Foundation on 01276 40 50 60 or visit www.make-a-wish.org.uk.