{"id":287,"date":"2004-09-26T12:07:30","date_gmt":"2004-09-26T12:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/?p=287"},"modified":"2018-03-20T06:43:53","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T06:43:53","slug":"nikkis-just-fan-tastic-for-dan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/nikkis-just-fan-tastic-for-dan\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikki&#8217;s just fan-tastic for Dan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>BY DAVID SEALE<\/b><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/09\/fantasticfordan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/09\/fantasticfordan-300x177.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"177\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1323\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/09\/fantasticfordan-300x177.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/09\/fantasticfordan.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>SHE might not be the object of affection for many six-year-old boys, but for Daniel Hughes, Nikki Webster was &#8220;the bomb&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The child star of the Sydney 2000 Olympics has been a great source of joy for Daniel, who used Nikki&#8217;s music as motivation during months of hospital downtime and a year at home in isolation to give his immune system a chance to recover from an extensive bout of chemotherapy.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel, of Conder, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when he was 2. Since then he has undergone a bone-marrow transplant, endured with unfaltering acceptance big needles rammed into his thigh and, despite relapsing twice, he&#8217;s a smiler.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, the boy who wants to be a Bobcat driver met the two loves of his life: nature and Nikki.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The latter was by far the more daunting. His Camp Quality companion, Kim Williams, offered to confront her fear of heights on the ferris-wheel afterwards if Daniel went through with his date.<\/p>\n<p>He agreed, although shyness overcame him as he met the 17-year-old pop singer backstage. Daniel did manage to tell Nikki he thought she was &#8220;good&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>So why did he want to meet Nikki so much? &#8220;Well, &#8217;cause I like her, and she&#8217;s my favourite star,&#8221; Daniel, suddenly a whole lot more talkative once Nikki was a few metres away, said. &#8220;I actually got on to her in the &#8216;lympics. She was pretty good.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And having met Nikki, were there any other stars he wanted a hug from? &#8220;Nup, only this one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His mum, Lisa, said Nikki&#8217;s songs made great musical therapy because they were so up-beat.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, those on the lawn in front of Stage 88 in Commonwealth Park &#8211; a munchkin rave party, if you like &#8211; seemed to think so too.<\/p>\n<p>A sea of pastels and broad-brimmed hats bopped along to the inaugural Littlies, Teens and In-Betweens concert at Floriade. Nikki is no stranger to Canberra; she has performed here four times, and particularly likes the politeness of people in the capital. It was her first Floriade, and she&#8217;d come back any day. As for her now not-so-secret admirer, &#8220;I&#8217;m very chuffed. It really just warms my heart, and that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m in this industry for, to make people happy &#8211; do you know what I mean? &#8211; and hopefully fulfil their dreams while I&#8217;m living mine,&#8221; Nikki, as sweet in prose as her Let&#8217;s Dance album lyrics, said.<\/p>\n<p>There were also performances by Dorothy the Dinosaur&#8217;s Dance Party (Parts 1 and 2), up-and-coming Daramalan singer-songwriter Ashleigh Mannix, and R&amp;B act D&#8217;Verse. <\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.canberratimes.com.au\/news\/local\/news\/general\/nikkis-just-fantastic-for-dan\/435080.aspx\">Canberra Times<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nikkiwebsterfan.net\/gallery\/thumbnails.php?album=255\">View scan of this article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY DAVID SEALE SHE might not be the object of affection for many six-year-old boys, but for Daniel Hughes, Nikki Webster was &#8220;the bomb&#8221;. The child star of the Sydney 2000 Olympics has been a great source of joy for Daniel, who used Nikki&#8217;s music as motivation during months of hospital downtime and a year &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/nikkis-just-fan-tastic-for-dan\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<\/a><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Nikki&#8217;s just fan-tastic for Dan<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-16"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1784,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/1784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}