2013 was a tough year for cancer fighter Leah and her parents, but the Xuereb family is now hoping that the new year will bring the five-year-old the freedom every child enjoys.

“This Christmas it felt as if we started living again. We had come back from the US (after specialised treatment)  with high hopes last Christmas but it was exactly a year ago today, on New Year’s Eve, that we received bad news that cancer traces had been detected in her body again.

“She is now doing well and our main hope for the New Year is total freedom for Leah,” her mother, Zhana, told Times of Malta from their home in Għajnsielem yesterday.

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