Lara Cooke had been sick in bed with high temperatures and vomiting for two weeks when a doctor diagnosed her with glandular fever. At just 10 years old, Lara went for her first-ever blood test to check for the viral infection. But later that evening, her parents received a phone call telling them to head straight to Wellington Hospital.
Devastatingly, their outgoing and free-spirited young girl had leukaemia.
“I remember it was slightly dark when my parents were called in,” tells Lara, now
