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An 'incredibly strong and brave' three-year-old is on the road to recovery after having a stem cell transplant to cure her rare form of cancer.

Hazel Richardson, who lives in the village of Albury near Bishop's Stortford, was diagnosed with Juvenile Myelomonocytic leukaemia (JMML) in 2015.

She had her second stem cell transplant at Great Ormond Street Hospital in September 2016 after a donor in Germany was found.

Hazel's aunt, Jemma MacFadyen said: "Hazel is such a little character, so strong and brave and cheeky. She turned three in April, but she thinks she is four.

"She was incredibly strong and brave, I think it was much harder for her parents. She was very strong.

"She was diagnosed with an incredibly rare form of leukaemia in November 2015, while her mum Alice was in Addenbrooke's Hospital having a baby.

"There did not appear to be anything that wrong with Hazel, but her mum knew that something was not right.

"She was a bit floppy and kept getting these temperatures and she also had spots on her face, which we now know is quite characteristic of JMML, but at the time did not seem like anything."

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Hazel had her first stem cell transplant in April of last year, but unfortunately it did not take and her disease returned.

Mrs MacFadyen explained: "The only treatment for JMML is a bone marrow transplant, or stem cell transplant as it is known now.

"Hazel had her first transplant at Great Ormond Street Hospital in April last year.

"How it works is they gave her a very strong dose of chemotherapy, then they attach a drip with the transplant.

"It did not work and quickly she began relapsing even before she left Great Ormond Street."

Fortunately the blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan managed to find Hazel another donor, one with an even higher match percentage.

Mrs Facfadyen said: "JMML is very, very rare, Addenbrooke's said they have only had six or seven patients who have had the disease.

"Anthony Nolan, who have the register for donors, found another match for Hazel. He was German and was a nine out of ten match, which was better than the first one.

"So far this one has helped. We are hopeful that this has been more successful than the first one.

"They say if it comes back it comes back quickly and very hard. So every day is a day away from where we were.

"All donors make their donations in their home countries then an Anthony Nolan courier brings the stem cells over. It is all very secretive.

"When two years elapses after the transplant you can meet with the donor, if they want to, and I think this is what the family is planning on doing."

Hazel has recently started to go to Albury Acorns pre-school, and the Furnuex Pelham Church of England School is planning to donate some of the money raised from the Felham Fayre on June 25 to Anthony Nolan.

In the future Hazel's family hopes to raise money for the charity themselves according to Mrs Macfadyen.

She said: "We definitely want to do some fundraising for Anthony Nolan, something big.

"We want to be sure and we want to now as a family that we can handle it because we have just come out of a difficult time."

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'Incredibly strong and brave' Albury girl, 3, recovering after stem cell transplant to cure cancer - Hertfordshire Mercury

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