A Moray youngster enduring her second battle against cancer has had her spirits boosted by a visit from some of her favourite fictional princesses.
Eileidh Paterson is undergoing chemotherapy at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital after suffering a relapse of the aggressive childhood cancer, high-risk neuroblastoma.
Eileidh, who lives in Forres, has lost her bushy brown hair because of the treatment and has undergone weeks of misery in a high-dependency unit as medics battle to rid her of the condition.
However, the plucky four-year-old has been feeling more like her old self this week and her morale improved further when she was visited by a group of performers costumed as famous Disney characters.
The youngster beamed broadly as her visitors serenaded her with a selection of songs from some of her most cherished films, and she later had some fun by donning a miniature doctors uniform and checking the health of her guests.
Eileidh’s favourite character, Princess Anna from Disney’s Frozen, joined young women dressed as Cinderella and Aerial from The Little Mermaid to play with her.
Eileidh’s mum, Gail Paterson, said the visit had provided some welcome relief following a trying time for the family.
Ms Paterson said: “Eileidh has been very poorly lately, and that has been hard to see.
“But her visit couldn’t have been timed any better, as she had only just got out of the high dependency unit and was beginning to feel better.
“She just lit up when she saw the princesses, that was really the best medicine for her.”
Ms Paterson said that Eileidh had spent much of yesterday excitedly detailing Monday’s visit to almost everyone she came into contact with.
But she added that the youngster was in store for some further tough times, as she resumes intensive chemotherapy sessions.
Doctors should be able to tell whether she has responded to the treatment within a month.
Eileidh was first diagnosed with neuroblastoma in May 2014, but she was given the all-clear last summer.
She then embarked on a series of trips to America to receive drugs designed to prevent it returning, after a massive fundraising effort secured £100,000 to pay for it.
But her involvement in the course was postponed last month when doctors revealed that the disease had returned.