“He’s still himself, he just has a horrible disease.”

That’s Claire Carrick’s realistic description of her little boy, Jacob, who hasn’t returned home since early September after being diagnosed with leukaemia.

This week the seven-month-old baby let out his first proper giggle since undergoing a heavy treatment of chemotherapy and spending 39 days in hospital.

“He’s a very vocal, laughing, baby, he wasn’t talking or laughing for a lot of the treatment,” Claire said on Saturday.

“Yesterday, I was tickling his chest, and he laughed.

“The first time he laughed, when he really first laughed, it was at his older brother, and I cried then. And then when he was laughing at his dad, I cried.”

Channel Seven stars Dr Chris Brown and Joh Griggs paid Jacob a visit on Saturday, one of many celebr

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