Hello this is me, Molly Mae Shelley, on holiday at Centerparcs in March ‘06 just 2 months before I was diagnosed with Leukaemia. At first my Mummy and Daddy thought I was just being a normal 3 year old when I said my legs hurt or that I was tired but this was not the case. When I kept getting spots and bruises, Mummy and Daddy took me to the doctor and the hospital and eventually to a special children's doctor.

This very nice man sent me to have some bloods taken at my local hospital. It was there they discovered that there was something wrong with my blood and I would have to go to a big hospital to see some very special doctors.

This Hospital was called Addenbrooks and I was on ward C2. They took more blood samples and did lots of different tests. They then told my Mummy and Daddy that I definitely had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) and that I would be in hospital for several weeks. They told them that the treatment was for more than 2 years and that I had an 80% chance of beating the disease with just chemotherapy alone. There were lots of new things to understand and I was sometimes very scared.

This is me with my friend Tia, who came into the hospital a few days after me – her blood was poorly too. My Mummy and Daddy told me that the medicine I was taking would make me feel very poorly and that my hair would fall out. It was just the same for Tia and lots of the other children on the ward.

I was in hospital for 5 weeks in the end and it was not very nice. Mummy and Daddy stayed in a special home called Acorn House so that one of them could sleep next to me and they would never be far away. My mouth got lots of ulcers and food didn’t taste very nice so I had to have a tube in my nose so that I could have special milk feed whilst I was asleep at night. I soon got used to it though, and to pushing my trolley around with my medicines on it. There was a special play room and lots of nice nurses and my little sister Daisy came to stay too sometimes. Eventually the doctors said my blood was looking a lot better and so I was very happy to finally go home and be with Daisy, who missed me a lot.

For the next 8 weeks the treatment was mainly at home and at the local hospital. I gradually got a bit stronger, had my 4th Birthday and started big school - which was very exciting. In October I had to go back to hospital to have more nasty medicines which made me feel very poorly. I had to miss a lot of school and I could not see my friends as much which made me sad but soon it was going to be Christmas which made me happy.

It was another 8 weeks before I had the last block of intensive treatment and in that time I grew a little bit of hair, was an angel in the nativity play at school and got a new princess bike for Christmas.

From mid Jan to late Feb ‘07 I had my last lot of intensive treatment. It took a long time for me to feel better after that and I was in and out of hospital lots of times meaning I missed lots of things but I went to school as often as I could and one thing I did do was my first school sports day. It was great fun, I was in 2 races, I finished second in one which wasn’t too bad!

Since then, and until the 15 July 2008 I have to have daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly chemotherapy medicines. Every week the nurse comes to my school to take some blood. This doesn’t hurt because I have a Hickman Line in my chest ( I call it my ‘wiggly’) which they take blood from and give me some of my medicines through.

On the 25 August I had my 5th Birthday. I had a party with lots of people – too many to name - but it was great. I got lots of presents and the weather was so sunny and then Mummy and Daddy took me and Daisy on holiday to Norfolk for a week.

So here I am again mucking about on the beach in October ’07. My hair is getting long and I feel great.

I like to do lots of things, I go to ballet and I have started to learn to play golf with my Daddy (but not in the garden any more because I’m quite good and my Mummy worries that the windows will get broken!!)

Mummy and Daddy say they are so very proud of me. Despite everything, I never complain about my treatment and always keep smiling.