The medical team treating Todd Hardy is saying the stem cell transplant given to the NDP leader is taking hold.

'Yesterday, they came in and were able to inform me that the transplant has taken hold and my sister's stem cells are now seem to be doing their job and everything looks very good and it's just going to get better from here on in,' Hardy told the media this morning via speaker phone from his room at Vancouver General Hospital.

Hardy was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia last August. He was medevaced to Vancouver, missing much of the territorial election campaign before returning at the end of September.

He again returned to Vancouver in late November to receive the stem cell transplant. After receiving three days of chemotherapy and three days of radiation, the stem cells were injected into his body on the evening of Nov. 24.

It was approximately 18 days after the transplant that the 12-person medical team was able to detect signs his sister's stem cells were beginning to graft with his bone marrow.

Hardy, 49, is now in the most dangerous phase of his leukemia treatment. Complications can arise between the graft (donor) and host (Hardy's) stem cells, organs could fail or the blood cancer may come out of remission.

'If this graft doesn't take, then I have to prepare for the outcome of it, which would be I'd have to prepare my family and friends and people that are close to me and maybe even, you know, my community for the fact that I may not make it,' he said.

Hardy is currently at day 20 of the 100-day monitoring period, but he said he feels like he's turned a corner in the last couple of days.

'So far, the doctors are very pleased and I'm right on schedule and things are looking good.'

Hardy's immune system had to be wiped out to provide the stem cells with the opportunity to take hold, but indications the transplant is working mean his blood cell counts should begin to improve.

Hardy said he hasn't been eating orally. He has also needed to receive continuous morphine for the last week to compete with the side-effects of the drugs included in the treatment that have caused severe canker sores, throat problems and toothaches. He has also been receiving sleeping medication.

'Every bit of energy, every thought, everything you've got, everything you thought you'd be able to do while you're going through it falls to the wayside, and all you feel is just unbelievably tired and sick, and the problem is, you don't know when it's going to end,' he said.

'You're so unbelievably exhausted. So tired you can't read. Some days I can put music on and listen to it; other days I can't; it's too much for my system.

'You have no say, you have no control whatsoever. You've just got to lay here and wait for something to happen.'

If the treatment continues to go well, Hardy said, he should be released approximately six weeks after the transplant. However, he will have to continue with frequent visits to the hospital for the subsequent two months.

For now, though, he is stuck in his ward and is not even allowed out on day passes as he was while receiving chemotherapy at St. Paul's Hospital.

'Here, I'm not allowed to leave this tiny little area up on the 15th floor at the Vancouver General until they discharge me. So basically my room is my cell, in many ways.'

He said he hopes to be able to return to the territory in approximately 70 days, which would place his homecoming in late February.

Hardy, however, said he isn't placing much thought on his return to his Whitehorse Centre seat in the legislative assembly.

'You don't lay here and think about your future; you just think about getting through each breath and hoping the days go faster and you can sleep more so those timelines they talk about will come and something will happen,' he said.

Hardy hasn't been keeping in touch with the NDP caucus office nor following the proceedings of the fall sitting of the assembly.

He said he decided with the election over, the most important thing is to focus on this aspect of his fight against cancer.

'I just place a lot of faith that they (NDP MLAs Steve Cardiff and John Edzerza) will do what the NDP stands for; that they will fight for what we believe in and they will set a tone that the Yukon needs for the future,' he said.

Hardy, however, doesn't regret his decision to maintain his position as leader of the party and continue his role as an MLA.

To have stepped down as leader when the party knew an election could have been called any day would have left the NDP in a slump, he said.

'We had already moved down so far down a certain road and already moved a certain direction in our campaign,' he said. 'Ultimately, I think staying with the party and doing the best I could, not knowing the situation I was going in with the health issue, not knowing if I was going to come home or not, probably was the most stable decision to be made.'

He added he feels continuing to campaign in the election had a positive impact on his health.

'It gave me a focus; it gave me something to pull my resources together,' Hardy said.

'It gave me a sense of belonging and activity outside my illness that took me outside of it. It made me not dwell upon my sickness so much and what was happening to me and look at the bigger picture in life and it gave me strength.'

Hardy first ran for political office successfully in the October 1996 election. He was narrowly defeated by then-Liberal Mike McLarnon in the 2000 vote when the Liberals swept to power, taking every seat in Whitehorse.

Hardy regained the Whitehorse Centre seat with an 82-vote margin in 2002.

He again regained his seat on Oct. 10, taking 47 per cent of the vote and 357 ballots.

Hardy's wife of 28 years, Louise, served as the Yukon's NDP Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2000. They have four grown children Janelle, Tytus, Tess and Lymond, and one grandchild, Ellazora.