Lucy still ill

Michael Laws is hoping to have daughter Lucy home for part of the Easter weekend after a setback in her fight against leukaemia.

The Wanganui mayor told the Herald on Sunday last night the three-year-old was still battling an infection contracted through an intravenous line. She had been staying at Ronald McDonald House, a residential unit for families with children being treated at Auckland's Starship hospital. Plans to take her home this weekend were cancelled after she was re-admitted to hospital last week.

Laws said Lucy still had an infection in her lungs and was having daily doses of antifungal medicines as well as chemotherapy and antibiotics to fight the latest infection. She had lost most of her hair. "She is a remarkable little girl, and has coped a lot better with her hair loss than her parents have."