Tomorrow is Lulu's last day at kindergarten -- but the day after that is the really big one for this five-year-old.
Despite only getting in the pool for the first time five months ago, Lulu Smith will swim for five hours on Saturday to raise money for Starship Children's Hospital.
It's a hospital she has spent a lot of time in.
First admitted when she was 40-hours-old, Lulu has a rare condition called mucopolysaccharidosis -- one of only seven cases in New Zealand. Her body can't break down a specific sugar, which, without treatment, builds up and then eats away at parts of the body.
Luckily for Lulu, she was diagnosed early, but in her five young years, she's gone through:
- 163 nights in hospital
- two bone marrow transplants
- 28 blasts of chemotherapy
- 28 blood transfusions
Now she's fit and healthy, and the future is bright.
"There's not much I can teach Lulu", her mother, Amy, says.
"She's here to teach us something about resilience, determination and acceptance and having an appreciation that each moment is actually okay."
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