Tia's army of angels are flying around the globe

Tia Taggart with her teacher Mrs Carole Carlile (s)

A class project to raise money for a brave little girl, who is fighting a rare form of cancer, has taken flight and gone global.

The Royal family and a host of celebrities and people across the world are now supporting the Jet Set Angel project that was the idea of a group of six-year-olds at St John’s RC Primary School in Padiham.

They wanted to do something to help their classmate, Tia Taggart who is battling Ewings’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.

With the help of teacher Carole Carlile the children started to make little angels to sell at £1 each and before they knew it the angels were flying all over the world as more people heard about the project and seven-year-old Tia’s courageous battle.

Tia Taggart and her classmates with their Jet Set Angels (s)

Mrs Carlile said: “We knew that we could not wave a magic wand to make Tia better but we wanted to do anything we could to help.

“Tia has been so brave since she was first diagnosed in October. She is very matter of fact about it and she always comes into my classroom with a big smile on her face. Even when she lost all her hair through the treatment she said “It’s only hair.’

“In all my teaching career I have never known such a positive and determined little girl.”

After setting a target of around £40 to help Tia’s family with travel expenses for her numerous trips to hospital for treatment, the total now stands at a staggering £2,000.

Sir Alex Ferguson holds one of the Jet Set angels (s)

Mrs Carole Carlile said: “We never expected anything like this to happen and it has been absolutely overwhelming for everyone.

“The idea came as a Lent project to help Tia and her family.

“We thought that perhaps we could raise a bit of money to put towards travel costs as Tia has to go to Manchester Children’s Hospital every three weeks for chemotherapy.”