A LEUKAEMIA survivor who narrowly escaped death is set to graduate as a paediatric nurse and live her dream of helping save children's lives.

Katy Payne, 20, was diagnosed with the deadly illness on Christmas Eve in 2000, when she was just two-years-old, battling the disease for another two years before finally getting the all clear.

Now, 18-years on from her diagnosis, Katie, who lives in Colchester, is hoping to help children going through the same horrendous trauma she went through, and is about to graduate from Chelmsford's Anglia Ruskin University.

She said: "I woke up from a lumbar puncture during treatment and I looked up to my mum in pain and told her I wanted to be a nurse. I wanted to make children feel better.

"I had come so close to death and I had to be brought back to life a couple of times but this just made me want to help people more.

"And now when I look at children suffering in hospital and are dying I think 'wow look at me now', and I want these children to have a chance at life like I have."

Following her diagnosis, mum Tracy and dad Paul, both 54, were heartbroken to see their daughter so ill.

She lost her hair because of chemotherapy, was always very weak and the steroids she was taking made her bloated.

But after two years of intensive treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a rare form of the condition which affects 650 people a year in the UK, she slowly began to recover.

Katy added: "All the way through primary school it was all I spoke about and as soon as I had the chance to choose my own subjects I chose double health and social care.

"I knew that is what would get me into college and then university.

"I was not going to let anything stop me, I was going to be a paediatric nurse and I have always been set on it.

"When I got accepted to university I was in total shock because now I can finally give back after everything I have been through."

Throughout her studies, Katy has been completing work experience at Colchester Hospital and incredibly is working with some of the same nurses who treated her when she was in hospital.

She said: "When they first saw me again they couldn't believe it was me.

"One of the nurses who cared for me when I was sick is Stuart Collier - I now work with him at Colchester.

"He's one of my best friends and we talk all the time.

"He can remember seeing me when I was sick and my skin was yellow, and he just can't believe that I'm the same person now."

Katy hopes to one day go into oncology but says her immediate goal is to graduate next year August and to work full-time as a paediatric nurse.

She added: "My parents and my nan never left my side and really pushed me forward along the way and I am so thankful to everyone."