Chelsea playing the waiting game

The town has supported Chelsea and her family ever since the Bury Times revealed that the brave youngster's leukaemia had returned for a second time.

Last Friday, May 28, Chelsea, of Alma Street, had the transplant at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

It will be at least two weeks before the family find out whether Chelsea's body has accepted the transplanted marrow.

"I am not allowing myself to think about what will happen if it is not a success," said her mother, Mrs Trish Noone.

"It took about an hour but she sat on my knee and was fully conscious throughout."

But although she is cheerful and lively, Chelsea has begun to get mouth ulcers. "The doctors told us this is completely normal," said Mrs Noone. "The massive doses of chemotherapy she had to have wiped out her body's defences against infection. We were told that recipients tend to get poorly around five days after transplants."

Like the dozens of people who have staged fund-raising events and who signed up to become donors, Chelsea's family are hoping the nightmare will soon be over.

When she began complaining of headaches and coughs in 1995, Chelsea's loving parents had no idea it was anything serious.

But their lives were turned upside down when they were informed that their five-year-old daughter had leukaemia.

She had two years of gruelling chemotherapy treatment and in November 1997 the cancer went into remission.

Chelsea returned to Gorsefield County Primary School, but the cancer returned last September.

Now, following the bone marrow transplant, Chelsea, whose hospital room is crammed with cards from school friends, is determined to triumph.

"Apparently, the record for leaving hospital after a bone marrow transplant is four weeks," said Mrs Noone. "Chelsea says she is going to get out in three."

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