Lucy Laws battles mystery virus

Michael Laws with daughter Lucy in 2008. Photo / Wanganui Chronicle

Michael Laws has taken indefinite leave from his duties as mayor of Wanganui while his young daughter Lucy battles a mystery virus in hospital.

Laws has spent the past 10 days in an isolation room at Wanganui Hospital with the 4-year-old, who has been having daily doses of chemotherapy since being struck by leukaemia early last year.

The treatment has left her neutropenic (without immunity) and when the virus struck, she had no reserves to fight it off.

Battling soaring temperatures, Lucy was taken off the chemotherapy and has been on a 24-hour drip of antibiotics and fluids ever since.

Laws' partner Leonie Brookhammer and the couple's two other children, Zoe, 2, and 5-month-old Theo, have also been unwell with a virus and are unable to have direct contact with Lucy. They can only wave at her through a window.

Laws has also taken leave from his morning talkback show on Radio Live and did not host his Sky Sports show The Press Box last week.

Late last week an exhausted Laws took a break from the hospital room to do one show for Radio Live and attend a council meeting.

His 16-year-old stepdaughter Ella took the morning off school to be with Lucy in his absence. Last year Laws started a blog about Lucy on his website after medical specialists told the couple their daughter was likely to die.

Hit by acute lymphoblastic leukemia and pulmonary aspergillosis, she underwent experimental treatment and at one stage Laws and Brookhammer considered stopping the treatment and taking her home.

But she survived and last December, wearing a brightly coloured rainbow dress, was the life and soul of her fourth birthday party, complete with a crop of newly grown hair.

Laws said it was hard to gauge Lucy's condition because of her naturally bright personality.

She was driving him "absolutely mad" watching Bunnytown, a Playhouse Disney cartoon, and he was hoping to persuade her to watch Tin Tin a little more.

"Even when she was at death's door she was a chirpy little kid.

"In a funny sort of way it masks symptoms a little bit because she is such a resilient and stroppy little girl."

His daughter found it hard to be separated from her mother and younger siblings whom she "absolutely adores".

While she was not "out of the woods" and faced two years of chemotherapy, Lucy rarely got down, Laws said.

"Every couple of days she cries and says she wants to go home but she quickly gets over that.

"She's an incredibly unique little personality."