There is always something going on at the Abingdon home of 11-year-old Leah Graham.

With two older sisters, two younger brothers and three step-sisters, life is chaotic enough without adding the complication of Leah's cystic fibrosis, a terminal condition requiring constant care. Which is where East Oxford hospice Helen House comes in, providing much-needed respite since Leah was four.

Her mum Selina Jeacock said: "Leah was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was about three months old.

"We never knew anything about Helen House until our health visitor mentioned it. We went up there and absolutely loved it."

Like many families, it is not just Leah who makes use of the expert care and range of facilities. Sometimes the whole family goes for respite.

Miss Jeacock said: "It's a blessing really. It has come in more useful than I imagined it could, not just for me and Leah but we all go there and everybody can relax, I can sit in the lounge and not worry, the girls can go off down to the games room and the boys can sit and play."

In 2003, Miss Jeacock and her fiancé Malcolm Watts had a little boy, Kai, who died when he was only 28 hours old. The hospice team supported the family.

Miss Jeacock said: "You can go there and shut the world out. It's like as soon as you shut those doors you don't have to think about what's round the corner.

"I don't have to think about what life might be like in five years, but I know I can go there in five years time and get support."

While outwardly, Leah looks like any other little girl and still goes to Rush Common Primary School, in Abingdon, her daily routine includes two rounds of physiotherapy and every eight to 10 weeks she has to be admitted to hospital for intravenous medication.

While the average life expectancy for someone with cystic fibrosis is 30, Leah's condition is more advanced and it is unlikely she will survive as long - something she discovered for the first time this year.

Miss Jeacock said: "She picked up a magazine and read an article about a young girl who had cystic fibrosis and found out. She has good days and she has days when she'll sit there and cry and say I'm scared.

"She's a very strong little girl. When she goes to Helen House she can forget about all that, she doesn't have to be Leah with cystic fibrosis, she can just be Leah - they don't judge her, and she can have a stroppy fit if she wants to."

Leah added: "They always do good things with me all the time. We go to the cinema and have Chinese. One weekend we watched Grease and sang all the songs because I wasn't very happy, because it was the first time I went after I found out."

Miss Jeacock said: "It's not a burden, and it's not an inconvenience, but when you go to Helen House you can lift it off your shoulders and say please take it just for a little while.

"And there is going to come a time when we will need it a lot more."

Leah has produced a piece of artwork to be sold to raise money for the Association of Children's Hospices.

It shows her lungs, held by a pair of hands and surrounded by pink feathers. She said: "I drew the hands because some days I feel like it's tight to breathe, like someone is squeezing my lungs together.

"The bubbles are all my friends and family that are around me and the feathers are because that's my favourite colour."

The artwork is being auctioned by Bonham's, with bidding closing at noon on Thursday, December 13. It can be viewed at www.childhospice. org.uk/ artofchildren/catalogue /artists/27.html