Kirsty Jones - Hannahs Choice: A daughters love for life. the mother who let her make the hardest decision of all.

So what are the really important things you need to know about me? Well, first theres the fact that if I ever have a boyfriend I want him to look like Zac Efron. At the moment, though, I dont want a boyfriend. My friend Simone has one called Tiago and weve nicknamed them Barbie and Ken. But Im not interested because I dont want anyone tagging onto me. Ive got more important things to do.

Simone is one of my school friends and the others are Laura, Becky, Kelcea, Brigitta and Zoe. Theyre all nutters and were always in touch, even though I dont see them much because at the moment Im not well enough to go to school a lot of the time. When Im at home, though, they message me to find out how I am or to tell me whats happening because theres usually something going on like when two of them once stopped speaking and I just wanted to bang their heads together. But I had to wait until I got back to school and by then theyd made up again. Mostly, though, we all get on really well and do girly stuff like trying out makeup on each other or having sleepovers. Once I stayed up until 11 p.m. on a school night and felt like a zombie the next day.

Then theres my family. First off is my dad Andrew, whos forty-three and really big and round so you get better cuddles. Mostly he smiles and is always winding me up by making jokes. But sometimes he blows his top when he gets angry and shouts the house down so we have to leave him alone until Mum speaks to him and puts him on the right path again. That doesnt happen often, though, because hes usually in a good mood. Hes a really nice dad.

My mum Kirsty is forty-two. Small with long red hair, she has twinkly eyes and loves horses almost as much as she loves my brother, sisters and I. Shes a really good mum and on the days Im feeling well well do things like bake cakes and biscuits. But if Im feeling tired well stay quiet and shell sometimes even go to the shop to get me juice and magazines. The best thing she did recently, though, was deciding to have a week when we didnt answer the phone. Our house can get really busy sometimes and I just wanted it all to slow down because I felt so tired. That was when Mum took the phone off the hook and I really enjoyed it.

Then there are my younger brother and sisters. First comes Oli, whos twelve and will hit you if hes in a bad mood. But if hes in a good one hell help you get past the really hard levels on your Nintendo DS sitting there for ages working out how to get past obstacles or putting in cheat codes if he cant which I really like. Mostly Oli is quiet and shy but hes chatty with me when he wants to be.

Next comes Lucy, whos ten. Shes outgoing, always wants to beat everyone to be the best and is almost as horse-mad as Mum. In fact shes so good at show jumping that shes hoping to go to the Olympics some day. She goes away a lot because she competes in shows at weekends and I miss her because I cant go. Theres no heating in the horse trailer and Id get too cold if I did, which isnt good when your heart is bad.

But when Lucy is at home we talk about horses all the time sitting and looking at pony magazines and deciding which ones wed buy if we had loads of money and I love it when I do get to go to shows with her because we eat loads of burgers. Ive tried riding myself but Im scared of heights and have a weak ankle which isnt a good combination to have on a horse.

Finally theres Phoebe, whos four and wild. Mum sometimes says she could swear she was given the wrong baby at hospital because Phoebe will run round the house again and again and never get tired. She goes at fifty miles an hour banging the lounge doors so you know where she is which is amazing because when she was born she weighed less than two bags of sugar and now you couldnt miss her. Phoebe also loves riding, but while most girls her age have a leading rein she doesnt have one because shes so brave. Shell always put up a good fight with me but shes kind too and will share her chocolates or give me a one pence piece which she thinks is a lot of money.

Then there are our animals, and there are lots of those. Weve got a dog called Ted, a cat called Tails McFluff, some goldfish (although Tails ate some of them once) and ponies called Roxie, Buddy and Mr Minty for Mum, Lucy and Phoebe to ride. We also have chickens for eggs but arent allowed to play with them because we put one on the trampoline in the garden once and laughed as it bounced up before flying away. Mum really told us off so we knew we couldnt do that again.

Then theres me. Im thirteen and I dont spend nearly so much time running around as Oli, Lucy and Phoebe because Ive got a bad heart and get tired easily. Thats why I only go to hospital school in the mornings and then come home at lunchtime to rest. I also spend a lot of time in bed because I pick up any little infection going like colds or stomach upsets which can get really boring because when I feel really ill my energy goes and all I can do is lie quietly.

But when I get well I get busy again, although I call it lazy busy because I cant run around or climb trees. Instead I do stuff like reading, going on my laptop, watching TV or playing DS in my bedroom. Im lucky because its my favourite place in the world, all pink with a four-poster bed, and my room at Acorns, where I go once a month, is cool too. Acorns is a place where children who are really ill can have a rest.

The films I like are Enchanted and High School Musical even though I know its not cool for someone as old as me to enjoy films like that. So I dont tell my friends, who are all into bands like Evanescence and Paramore, in case they think Im babyish. But I prefer happy stuff and thats why I like those films and the music in them. On TV I enjoy Lark Rise to Candleford and detective programmes like Poirot because I try and work out the case before the policeman does. I watch EastEnders sometimes too, even though Mum doesnt really like me to, but not that often because the people in Albert Square are always having massive fights so it can get a bit predictable.

I also like The Apprentice when SrAlan tells the contestants where theyre going wrong, and Strictly Come Dancing. I love Anton because he smiles so much, and Brendan, whos always going off in a major strop. Bruce Forsyth is really old but good and Tess is nice too, although she sometimes wears odd dresses. I prefer Strictly to The X Factor because the people dont know if they can dance and some of them get really good while others are awful, whereas on The X Factor they know they can sing and just get better. The other thing I watch is Masterchef because it makes me laugh. Like the time when John picked up a piece of black salmon and said, Thats one well-cooked piece of fish. What an understatement.

But maybe my favourite thing is a game called Boggle. Its a box full of letters that you jumble up to make words and I love it because it feels like there are lots of them inside me which I can see in the game. Thats why I also enjoy reading because books are full of words you can lose yourself in. One I really like is Enid Blytons The Magic Faraway Tree. Its for younger kids really but its great because it tells the story of a group of friends who climb an enchanted tree and find a different land at the top of it each time. So they visit places like the Land of Spells, where they accidentally make a child shrink, the Land of Magic Medicines, where they buy a potion for their mum whos ill in bed, and the Land of Presents (that ones obvious).

The place I like the sound of best, though, is the Land of Do As You Please where the children get to do whatever they want like drive a train, ride elephants and swim in the sea. A lot of people think you stop having fun if you get sick, which means you never get to go to the Land of Do As You Please. But I know its not like that. Sometimes you have to have fun in a different way, but mostly you have it just like other kids.