A BRAVE Weymouth tot is looking forward to a happier new year thanks to Dorset Echo readers.

Earlier this year generous readers donated £6,251 to buy a special vest to help Scarlett Russ breathe properly. When she fell ill the family were able to buy a nebuliser for her at short notice with the extra money left over from the fund.

Little Scarlett has cystic fibrosis, a condition that affects the internal organs – especially the lungs and digestive system – clogging them with thick sticky mucus and making it hard to digest food and breathe.

Until recently the brave little girl was in hospital but is now doing well and was back home for Christmas and new year.

Her parents Lisa and Colin, wanted to say a huge ‘thank you’ to all the Echo readers for their help and support this year.

In September the family found Scarlett had a bug in her lungs. She was put on strong antibiotics and needed a nebuliser to get the medicine into her lungs to kill the bug.

Nebulisers turn the liquid medicine into a vapour that can be breathed in.

The family were able to buy the machine quickly for Scarlett.

Lisa said: “It was really good because the hospital can give you a nebuliser but they are slow and old and she had to have it twice a day and it would have taken 15 minutes each time.”

The new machine means Scarlet only has to stay still for two or three minutes.

Lisa said: “It’s less stressful for her and us.”

She had the medicine for four weeks and the hospital found that the bug had been killed.

But little Scarlett wasn’t well and an X-ray showed something wasn’t right.

A camera was put into her lungs and swabs were taken to see if the bug was still there – before that pneumonia had grown in her swabs and Scarlett had to go into hospital for two weeks.

Lisa stayed in hospital with her, she said: “We got the results back on December 9 that nothing nasty grew in her lungs, so they let her go a week early.”

They said that it may be that Scarlett will need to use her nebuliser every day to thin the mucus in her lungs, but they are waiting to see what happens.

Since her return home, Scarlett has been laughing and running around and making lots of noise, and she loves her special vest.

Lisa said: “She goes over to it and stands by it and goes ‘Brr!’ for me to put it on.”

Lisa added: “She’s at that age now – she was looking at every Christmas tree and going ‘Wow!’”

She added: “She’s always smiling. You would never know there’s anything going on. She never let’s anything bother her.”

Lisa and Colin would like to say a huge thank you to all the Echo readers and wish them a very happy New Year.

Lisa said: “Thank you to everybody for their support and thank you to everyone who helped to raise the money for her because without it we wouldn’t have been able to get the nebuliser.”

She added: “We are very grateful we were in a position where we could buy the nebuliser that fast.”