Brave Hartlepool girl Keisha gets double boost

The five-year-old, from Hartlepool, has had some fantastic news as she has undergone a new batch of blood and platelet tests at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle and results were encouraging as she continues her fight with leukaemia.

In a second tonic on the very same day, the Windermere Road youngster was nominated for a Child of Courage Award in the Best of Hartlepool competition.

Delighted mum Natalie Watson, 31, said: “I am over the moon that she has been nominated but it is a shock. It is good news.”

This has been a rollercoaster year for Keisha.

Last February, she was given the last rites by a priest at her hospital bed when all hope seemed lost.

But the little battler refused to give in. And even though she still has to attend hospital 35 times a year for chemotherapy in her legs and stomach, and bone marrow lumbar punctures, she is winning her fight for life and doctors say her condition is treatable.

It will be another 18 months before doctors can say for sure that she has the all-clear – or whether the leukaemia is still there and she will need a bone marrow transplant.

But Natalie said all the signs were encouraging for now, adding: “She is doing well. She still needs chemotherapy and some days are better than others, but she is back at school at St Aidan’s Primary.”

The nomination for Keisha told how she battled from death’s door and “stole Hartlepool’s heart”.

Keisha, who has a ten-year-old brother Kain and four-month-old sister Scarlett, is one of the first entries in this year’s competition and we want even more. Fill in the nomination form on this page or go online at http://www. jpne-events.co.uk.

The competition is being held in association with Niramax, and in which Specsavers are category sponsors.

The deadline for entries is Saturday, April 2. After that, judges will draw up a shortlist for each of the categories, listed right.

The grand finale is at the Hardwick Hall Hotel on Tuesday, April 26.