PORTSMOUTH — While Debbie Kirchner’s 6-year-old daughter Hannah underwent a lifetime’s worth of radiation and chemotherapy to beat back the leukemia that had returned with a vengeance, volunteers were raising a ruckus back home

Volunteer contractors, friends, family and Habitat for Humanity were literally taking her mold-ridden house apart — hustling to complete their work before her return. Their plan — create a healthy “house of love” for Hannah.

Back in March of 2008, the family had thought Hannah’s acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which destroys her healthy white blood cells and replicates abnormal ones in their place, was killed off by chemotherapy. The family — Ms. Kirchner, a single mom, Hannah, and Cynthia, a Portsmouth High School student — threw a party to celebrate the end of Hannah’s leukemia.

But by last fall, Hannah was already getting sick again, twice contracting pneumonia, developing asthma, and then an coming down with an illness on a December trip to Disney World. Tests last February proved these were all bad signs: Hannah’s leukemia had returned.

Ms. Kirchner, her voice thickening, said that the celebration “was a big mistake because I told her it would be the last. So the first thing she said was, You lied to me. You never lie to me.”

The family spent most of the next several months in Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence or the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston for an aggressive treatment of chemotherapy and radiation. “She’s had her lifetime limit of radiation on her whole body,” said Ms. Kirchner, which included 20-minute sessions, twice a day for four days, in addition to the chemotherapy. This was all in preparation for a bone marrow transplant — her cells had to be killed for her body to accept the marrow — which she had in June.

“The doctors can’t say for sure but the transplant was the best plan,” Ms. Kirchner said. “They gave us a 50-50 shot if we did this, but just 30 percent if we did only chemotherapy.”

While they spent those weeks in the hospital, a mold problem that Ms. Kirchner had been able to keep at bay grew much worse in their house. Ms. Kirchner’s father, Bob Benevides of Portsmouth, who had stopped by her Tallman Avenue house, discovered the proliferating mold.

“You could see it in the bathroom, in the ceilings, in a closet, and you could see it in my granddaughter’s room on the baseboard,” said Mr. Benevides, who likes to be called Poppy.

Because of Hannah’s weakened immune system — the treatments and transplant require Hannah to be isolated from others and from bacteria, fungus and germs through next spring — the family could not return to a moldy home. Making matters worse, Ms. Kirchner lost her long-time job as a teacher at Head Start because she must stay with Hannah all day. So the family could not afford to rid the house of mold or repair the leaky roof, which was causing the mold to proliferate.

Mr. Benevides turned to Habitat for Humanity of Rhode Island of the East Bay Inc. for help. Ed Silveira, chairman of the local affiliate and a Middletown Town Councilor, met with Mr. Benevides in the house and explained that Habitat does not do this sort of project; Habitat typically builds a new home on a property owned by Habitat.

“But when Ed saw a big photo of Hannah on the living room wall,” Mr. Benevides said, “he said, We’re gonna do this for you.”

Habitat for Humanity teamed up with Rebuilding Together of Greater Newport, and then the donations started rolling in. Hundreds of volunteers signed on, and dozens of businesses offered their services. Together, they rid the house of mold, removed all the furniture and belongings that had been contaminated, and rebuilt a beautiful home from the single-story 40-year-old ranch. Then they gave the family all new furniture, appliances, stocked the fridge and cabinets, built a new driveway and landscaped the front and back yard.

“My whole family calls Ed Silveira my granddaughter’s guardian angel. I know he was sent from heaven,” said Mr. Benevides, who also thanked all the companies and volunteers. “This house is made by pure, pure love.”

Coming home

After the transplant, Ms. Kirchner and her daughters moved into her parents’ house because their home would make Hannah sick. Ms. Kirchner knew her father had enlisted the help of Habitat for Humanity, but she thought they were only going to clean up mold and patch her roof. The family was in for a big surprise.

Beginning on the first weekend of August and over the next 12 weeks, more than 150 volunteers and too many local companies to name went to work.

They removed flooring and gutted a porch down to bare walls to build a third bedroom where Ms. Kirchner now sleeps — for six years she either shared a bed with Hannah or slept on the couch. They put in hardwood floors, painted each room and built a canopy over Hannah’s bed in her pinked-out Hannah Montana-themed bedroom.

Of the many local businesses helping out, several were from Portsmouth. East Coast Construction trimmed trees in the backyard to “let in some sunlight,” took out weeds that had overgrown the front lawn, and mulched around Hannah’s swing-set, said Max Essery, co-owner along with Kurt Poulton and Billy Reed. Martin Van Hof, owner of Island Garden Shop, designed the garden so that it would flower over several seasons and have some green year-round. Mr. Van Hof supplied azaleas, boxwoods, hydrangeas, rhododendrons and flowering perennials, which he planted with the help of All Island Landscape, owned by Byron Rymer. Mr. Rymer also seeded the lawn and helped Mr. Van Hof line the garden beds with Belgian blocks. After all that was done, A-1 Paving, owned by Andy Sheekey and Bob Rodrigues, paved a new driveway, and took the old asphalt that had been excavated by East Coast Construction and recycled it as base for another paving project.

“I can’t imagine having a 6-year-old going through leukemia,” said Mr. Silveira, whose 14-year-old son Zachary was among the workers. “In my mind this was a very small gesture for not only this family but for all families that are going through something like this. There was so much good will and effort. I never once thought, We can’t do this; it’s too much.”

Volunteers were busy working away right up until the last moment when they surprised the family on Saturday afternoon. That morning, Ms. Kirchner’s dad went to work on her house as usual, while her mom had other plans.

“We were supposed to be going to a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins,” Ms. Kirchner said. Her mom said she was driving Hannah and Cynthia to the farm but she just had to stop by the house to get money from ‘Poppy.’ “I didn’t think anything of it even then.” Instead, they pulled up to a completely renovated house and a yard filled with glowing volunteers.

Hannah “couldn’t stop giggling” when she saw the house and while the family was taken through their new rooms, Ms. Kirchner said. “She’s still very excited, and she keeps rearranging things in her room.”

As for how Ms. Kirchner felt, “I don’t even have a word to say thank you to everybody. We’re so lucky to live in a place like this. There’s so many caring people out there.”

Staying strong

Hannah is looking forward to Halloween so she can dress up as Hannah Montana. Although she sometimes gets depressed because she misses friends and school (All Saints Academy), she remains strong.

“There was a time when she said, I can’t do this, mommy. And that just scared me,” Ms. Kirchner said. “But you can’t give up. You can’t get depressed. You’ve got to fight through it. I believe in prayer and there’s so many people out there praying that I believe this is going to be it. I’m asking everyone to continue to pray. I think that’s what carried her through.”