Dying Krystal's last act LOVE LETTERS TO MY GIRL

The young mum is leaving a lifetime’s worth of words

In the light-filled sitting room of her parents’ house north of Wellington, young mum Krystal SloanMeyrick sits penning 50 years of birthday cards to her precious four-year-old Harper-Rose.

The heartfelt cards, which each speak of love, memories and advice for the future, are carefully sealed in envelopes and then tucked away so they can be given to her little girl with each milestone year.

“Here’s her 16th birthday card, a card for her 21st and a card for her wedding,” says Krystal, 24, carefully stowing each in a special box.

Krystal is determined to give Harper-Rose her fifth birthday card in October and watch proudly as her little girl starts school, but deep down she knows her family is more likely to pass on the other gifts with each subsequent year.

Despite the single mum’s youth, translucent skin and clear eyes, she is, in her own words, “waiting to die”.

Diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) nearly four years ago, Krystal has battled the cancer valiantly, with brutal rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, and a stem-cell transplant, but her condition is now terminal.