A YOUNG artist is ­using her talent to help the medical staff who nursed her through cancer.

School girl Catherine Crome was diagnosed less than a year ago with ­Ewing's Sarcoma when she was just 11.

Now, after 14 courses of chemotherapy, Catherine has helped illustrate a book to be sold to raise cash for Yorkhill Children's Charity.

She helped illustrate The Adventures of Wee Robert Bruce and had just finished its follow-up, More Adventures of Wee Robert Bruce, when she became ill.

Catherine's mum, Sarah, said: "About a year ago we had the shock news that Catherine had taken ill and most of the year has been spent focusing on her care.

"When Catherine began her treatment we were just trying to get the book out but that fell by the wayside as everything became about Catherine and getting her well again.

"But when she became better we thought about using the book to raise funds for the hospital to say 'thank you'."

Catherine has spent the past year travelling back and forward to Yorkhill from Vale of Leven for ­gruelling treatment.

After 11 months of chemotherapy she is waiting for the results of a scan to ­determine her progress.

Sarah, 47, added: "Catherine had a lump on the back of her head which a year ago was removed but the doctors didn't realise what it was.

"The lump was sent away for testing and the results showed it was a malignant tumour.

"Doctors told us she would need chemotherapy as this was one of the most aggressive forms of cancer and quite rare.

"It has been a difficult time but we're feeling very positive now."

Catherine, now 12, said she felt it was important to help the hospital, particularly the Schiehallion Ward, through fundraising.

She added: "They treat you like a person, not just something broken that they are trying to fix.

"Everyone speaks to you like you're an individual. Of course, they are concentrating on your treatment and what they are doing but they also manage to chat and put you at your ease at the same time."

The books are written by Paul V Hunter and illustrated by Anne Marshall and Catherine, who is a Vale of Leven school pupil.

Paul, who sat by Catherine's bedside while she was ill, said: "The book imagines Robert the Bruce when he was a wee boy.

"I have never quite grown up myself so it's easy for me to put myself in his shoes.

"Robert the Bruce would become Scotland's greatest King, but little is known about his childhood except that he was born and raised in Ayrshire and the southwest of Scotland.

"He lived out his final years in the Leven Valley, north of Dumbarton, and we thought there must be a reason he came back there."

All profits from the first edition of the book will go to Yorkhill Children's Charity.

To find out more or buy the book, e-mail sarah.crome@hotmail.co.uk, see www.auchbooks.co.uk or call Sarah on 01389 605497.