A BRAVE little girl with leukaemia who is fighting for her life will have a new home this Christmas after her mum's plea in the Tele for help paid off.

Greenock Telegraph:

Aria McGill won the hearts of our readers when we revealed the plight that the three-year-old and her desperate mum Leighann Forsyth were facing.

Doctors had told Leighann she had to move from her flat in Broomhill Street because it is too small, in need of repair and is two flights up.

It was deemed unsafe for Aria, who is incredibly weak, has limited mobility and needs her own bedroom to reduce the risk of infections that could kill her.

But Leighann was forced to take her little girl to live with her own mother, in a shared bedroom, because her applications for new tenancies were repeatedly turned down by housing bosses.

She was even told she was not a top priority.

Councillor Colin Jackson took up her case, demanding that local housing associations resolve it urgently.

Now Leighann, a tenant with River Clyde Homes, has been told by Larkfield Housing that she has been successful with a bid for a house with them in Auchmead Road, close to her parents.

The news comes as a timely tonic for the family with little Aria currently back in hospital.

Leighann, speaking from the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow, said: "When Aria was diagnosed, I didn't even know whether she would still be with us at Christmas.

"Then as it got closer we thought we wouldn't have a house that was safe for us to live in.

"This is the best news we have had for a long time.

"Our Christmas wishes have come true.

"I don't know exactly when we will be in the house because there is still work to do in it. But it is a huge weight lifted off our shoulders.

"It would never have happened without the Tele and Colin Jackson. I was getting nowhere until Colin stepped in.

"Two weeks ago they couldn't give me one house and then they were offering me two."

Greenock Telegraph:

Only days after they found out the news about the house, Aria was rushed to hospital by ambulance when a spike in her temperature raised alarm that she may have a life-threatening infection.

The tot has now recovered, but she has had to undergo another gruelling round of gruelling chemotherapy.

Aria is under the care of the Schiehallion Unit at the Royal after she was diagnosed with blood cancer in June this year.

Leighann was given the devastating news that her daughter had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

She immediately underwent a life-saving surgical procedure before spending eight weeks in hospital.

Despite asking her own social housing landlord River Clyde Homes for help and joining the Inverclyde Common Housing Register, she was knocked back for successive houses and at one point she was 39th on the waiting list.

Leighann was recently told by Larkfield Housing that she had been successful in her bid to get a house with them in Auchmead Road, close to her parents.

She said: "It is perfect, a three bedroom house which means we are reunited again as my older daughter can move back in as well. We are all together again.

"It is also close to my mum and dad. We rely on them if we need to drive up to the hospital."

Councillor Jackson has told of his relief at the news.

He said: "There is no doubt that this happened because of the Tele.

"Aria and her family were let down by those who should have been there to support them.

"Sadly they are not the first and regrettably I know from experience they won't be the last."