KEY POINTS:
Brave youngster Scott Collins has been fighting an 18-month battle against cancer - but all he wants to do is go home to help feed his beloved cows.
The 7-year-old, from a dairy farm near Wellsford, is recovering at the Starship children's hospital in Auckland. This week he underwent high-dose chemotherapy and a form of bone-marrow transplant using his own stem cells.
The stem cells were taken before the chemotherapy as the cancer treatment destroys the blood immune system.
From tomorrow, Scott becomes the face of a Starship Foundation campaign to raise $3.6 million to rebuild the cancer unit on level seven of the Starship, where 100 new patients are diagnosed each year.
Scott was diagnosed 18 months ago with neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous tissues. He has spent 15 weeks in hospital - having chemo, abdominal surgery to remove a tumour and treatment for infections. Radiation therapy is yet to come.
Sequestered in a special part of the cancer ward because of his high risk of infection until his immune system recovers, Scott's face brightens at talk of home.
"I'll probably see all my heifers," he says when asked what awaits him after his likely hospital stay of several weeks.
Scott loves cows. He reels off the names of real cows at home, "Daisy, Freedom, Jill ... ", and he plays with a herd of toy ones - plus numerous other animals - on the floor of his hospital room.
The hospital wants improvements including an expansion to 18 beds for inpatients, all in single rooms; a separate area for adolescents and bigger playrooms - enhancements expected to help children improve through better compliance with drug treatment.
The existing unit is considered inadequate, particularly because four of its 14 beds are in one room.
Babies sometimes have to be accommodated next to teenagers in this room, causing a clash of sleep patterns and leaving one unlucky sleep-over parent to slumber on a fold-out bed beneath the room's sole washbasin.
"I've been under that sink quite a few times," said Scott's mother, Gail Collins.
"I get leaned over sometimes when the nurses wash their hands."
Light shines through the curtains, TV has to be turned down low when baby patients sleep and they wake others when they cry.
"It's quite good when you're in your own room," said Mrs Collins. "You can leave your toys out. In the four-bed room Scott normally just has them on his bed - not the floor, because there's not the room."
Dr Lochie Teague, clinical director of paediatric haematology and oncology, said young patients could find it very hard to always take their cancer medicines.
"There's some overseas evidence that if you can better meet their emotional and physical needs you are going to get better buy-in to the treatment they need."
* The foundation says it has been told by SkyCity, one of its main sponsors, that the contributions it receives from the company are not affected by SkyCity's cost-cutting.
How to give
Donations of $20 can be made by phoning 0900 STARSHIP,
of $3 by texting "STARSHIP" to 469, or at
www.myimagination.co.nz
