Ellie (right), who is nearly one, has spent a lot of her life in hospital.

When she was only a few weeks old she became quite unwell with a nasty cough and started losing weight. She spent about three weeks on the children's ward at Salisbury District Hospital, where it was diagnosed she had the life-threatening disease cystic fibrosis. She now has regular daily treatment and has to be seen in a special clinic for children with cystic fibrosis every two or three months.

With modern treatment, Ellie is likely to do very well but she will always have the disease. She will have to come to the hospital outpatients department regularly and will need to stay on the ward from time to time as well.

Ellie's consultant, Dr Robert Scott-Jupp, says: "Ellie is doing really well but as she gets older she is likely to need to continue to come into hospital for regular treatment. The new centre and the facilities, funded by the Caring 4 Kids campaign, within it will go a long way towards making life more tolerable for Ellie and will offer mum Lauren somewhere comfortable to stay during the long days and nights when her daughter is in hospital."

4:25pm Thursday 27th March 2008

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