My name is Asha and this is my diary about leukaemia, my treatment and all the different people that are looking after me and helping me to get better.

Before I was diagnosed I had started to feel a bit sick and tired. Some days I was too tired to play outside and my legs would get really sore and achy too. One day I had a blood nose and a few days later I had another one. That was when Mum said it was time to go to the doctor.

The doctor listened carefully to everything that had been happening. He asked some questions and then gave me a check-up. Afterwards he sent me to another room to see the nurse who took some blood out of my arm. She was very nice and explained that she would just take a little bit and that I would still have plenty left inside me. They tested my blood, and ran some other tests, and a couple of days later my doctor told me I had leukaemia.

I didn't know what that meant but my doctor explained that the factories in my bones that make my white blood cells had broken down and were making too many sick cells. You can see this explained in a cartoon here. He said that is what had been making me feel sick and tired. The sick cells were taking up too much space and crowding out the healthy cells, which is what made my bones ache too.

My doctor said that I would have to go to hospital for a special type of medicine called chemotherapy. That would help fix the factories so that they can make healthy cells again and so I can get better.

Getting better is a team effort. Lots of different types of people look after me and other kids with leukaemia, not just in hospitals but also in clinics and special accommodation. They all have very special and important jobs and work together to help make people better as quickly as they can. I am going to tell you about some of the people who are helping me, here in my diary.