Diary of courage

When eight-year-old Nicole Favre was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she faced it with courage and optimism. Keen to keep in touch with her many friends while she was in hospital, she set up a website on which she posted a diary, as well as pictures and poems.

Before long people from around the world were following Nicole's child'seye view of her illness. Despite her sometimes gruelling treatment, Nicole never complained - her entries described outings with her family and her poems showed how the youngster coped with her leukaemia.

In one she wrote: "I have a disease, It is very, very bad. It's called leukaemia, And it makes me MAD! It affects my blood, And every day, The nurses take, My platelets away!"

Tragically, Nicole lost her fight against leukaemia - and at her funeral last week 400 friends and family gathered to pay tribute to her. Hundreds of messages of support were also posted on the site by strangers who had come to know Nicole through her messages.

Her mother, Julia, who was also struck with acute myeloid leukaemia seven years ago but is now in remission following a bone marrow transplant, told the Standard: "It is very difficult now that Nicole has gone. She once said to me: 'It's harder for you Mummy.' Although she didn't talk about it, we believe she knew she was going to die. She was amazingly brave.

"She was very bubbly, witty and caring - she always wanted to look after people. And she was wise beyond her years. That really came out during her illness."

Nicole died at home with her mother, father Jacques, and sisters Carolyne, 10, and Jennifer, six, after leaving hospital several weeks earlier. She had undergone chemotherapy and a trial drug. "The disease was just too aggressive," Mrs Favre said. "The doctors did everything they could. When she came out of hospital, she seemed well. It was only in the last two weeks that her condition really deteriorated."

During her stay at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, Nicole drew cartoon characters to depict what was happening to her body.

The brightly-coloured creations were Olly Oxygen, Captain Chemo, Lenny Leukaemia Cell, Willy White Cell and Peter Platelet.

In another poem, entitled The Sound Collector, she described being treated in hospital with remarkable insight: "The footsteps of my nurses, Down the corridor. My dripstand goes a bleeping, And then a noisy roar.

" The screeching of my sisters, The snoring of my dad. The shouting of my mother, It really makes me mad!"

The poem concludes: "Outside I hear a whistle, A whistle in the breeze. And then I hear a birdsong, And the swaying of the trees."

A week before her death, she posted a typically upbeat message saying: "Sorry I haven't written to you in ages. I haven't had the time but thanks for your messages. Keep them coming and keep up the jokes!!"

A keen dancer, Nicole was excited to meet Rachel Stevens during a Make A Wish Foundation charity trip in February and had just started learning the piano.

She had hoped to become a teacher when she grew up - and insisted on attending school in the afternoons of her last few weeks to see her friends.

At her funeral on Friday, guests were encouraged to wear pink - Nicole's favourite colour - and asked to make donations to haematology research at the Royal Marsden.

Nicole's website can be found at www.hello-nicole.co.uk