'Bubble boy' allowed to go home

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A seven-year-old boy with a rare genetic illness is returning home almost nine months after a life-saving bone marrow transplant.

Rhys Harris of Newbridge, south Wales, was diagnosed with an incurable genetic disease called Nemo when aged three.

He lived in isolation in a sterile bubble with parents Kevin and Dawn banned from hugging or kissing him.

However he is finally, on his way home after being treated at Newcastle General Hospital.

Doctors in Newcastle gave him a new immune system and said there was no trace of the faulty gene.

"Rhys has been very very fortunate to get where he is and I'm proud of him," Mr Harris said.

He described the experience as "scary" and said his son had come "too close to death".

"The worst thing was watching our son go through it and not being able to cuddle him. We couldn't have dreamt of this 12 months ago," he added.

Nothing would have been possible without the worldwide search for a bone marrow donor for Rhys which ultimately found a match in the United States.

Rhys had to remain in isolation for up to nine months

The disease, of which there have been only 40 diagnosed cases since 2001, crippled his immune system leading, in his case, to the contraction of an incurable form of TB.

Experts at Newcastle General Hospital, a centre of excellence in the field, gave Rhys only a less than one in three chance of survival.

Mario Abinun, consultant paediatric immunologist who oversaw Rhys's treatment, said: "He's done tremendously well, we think and hope his immune system will improve further with time and that he's not going to have major problems from an infection's point of view."

The family temporarily moved from south Wales to Newcastle, where their other son attended school there.

Before Rhys could undergo the transplant, doctors had to kill his own marrow using chemotherapy.

The successful transplant was followed by two months of sterile isolation as Rhys recovered and his new immune system began to establish itself.