HER inspirational spirit and determination to beat cancer won the hearts of thousands.

But after battling the disease for all of her short life, two-year-old Olivia Gallienne has lost her fight for survival.

The brave toddler died in Southampton General Hospital following a minor stroke - just one month after completing Cancer Research UK's Race for Life in Southampton.

Olivia's parents, Andrew and Katie, made the agonising decision to switch off the toddler's ventilator after her condition deteriorated seriously.

Thirteen members of Olivia's family - including seven-year-old sister Jazmine - were by her side when she died.

Just a few weeks earlier little Olivia had toddled across the Race for Life finish line on Southampton Common, free of the oxygen she relied on 24 hours a day.

It was a moment her proud family didn't believe they would ever witness, having seen the youngster rushed to intensive care four times, the last of which nobody thought she would survive. Olivia - the recipient of a Cancer Research Little Star award for bravery - was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in November 2004.

She had been in hospital for most of her life but had recently been allowed to return to her Alresford home.

Her first attempts at walking more than a year ago were frustrated when she again became ill. A bone marrow transplant at Bristol Children's Hospital had to be called off twice because she was so poorly.

Her mum Katie said: "Olivia had spent 616 days of her life in hospital as an in-patient and I was just getting used to having her at home. I can see her now, walking around with her little trolley. I just can't believe she has gone."

Olivia's death, she added, hit her sister Jazmine particularly hard.

Her parents today paid tribute to staff at Southampton General's Piam Brown Ward and the paediatric intensive care unit, saying: "We look on the staff as our extended family.

"Through their dedication we had two-and-a-half years with Olivia. Without them we would not have got her through any of it."