Bubble wrapped boy returns home
Jul 13, 2008 by Nathan Bevan, Wales On Sunday
HE looks like any other seven-year-old with a happy-go-lucky gap-toothed grin.
But Rhys Harris, from Newbridge, has a special reason for such a big smile.
He’s back home in Wales safe and well after almost a year away battling a rare killer disease. Doctors had given him only 18 months to live.
“Honestly, it’s like he’s never been away,” said proud dad Kevin, a former car salesman who uprooted the entire family to Newcastle last October to be near one of only two hospitals in the UK where his son could get the specialist care he needed.
“Rhys couldn’t wait to get back and had been counting down the days on a little calendar, just like he always does just before Christmas.”
In December 2006, Wales On Sunday broke the news the Hollybush Primary School pupil had been diagnosed as having Nemo, a terminal condition that affects only 35 people in the world, attacking the body’s immune system. We revealed how, after he contracted TB, his parents Kevin and Dawn were given the agonising choice of watching their son slowly die or risk him having a bone marrow transplant and the chemotherapy killing him instead.
“The doctors told us that if Rhys continued with his regime of drugs then he only had six months to a year left to live and, as parents, we just couldn’t accept that,” said Kevin, 44.
In September, Rhys’ family were told a bone marrow match had been found in the US. Agonisingly, this meant Rhys would have to live in a special isolation “bubble” to stave off risk of infection, Kevin and his wife Dawn being unable to so much as give him a kiss.
But he recovered so quickly from the life-threatening surgery he was discharged after two months. Since then, Rhys has defied the odds and been declared free of Nemo.
“It’s amazing,” said an emotional Kevin last night. “To think, the day before his transplant I’d considered not signing the consent form because I’d rather he came home to die with dignity and have his family around him.
“But deep down I knew we could never give up hope,” he added.
“Now, clinically speaking, we’re more or less out of the woods. But because Nemo is so rare and not enough is known about it, the doctors are hedging their bets and keeping him on a course of drugs.”
So what’s next then for little Rhys?
“A family holiday and then it’s back to school in September – he’s excited about seeing his class mates again,” said Kevin, who added that he was forever indebted for the tireless support he and his family had received throughout their gruelling ordeal.
“We had everything, from people in the Valleys sending £5 cheques in the post to the Benevolent Fund of the RAF, in which I served for a number of years, paying our mortgage for a year, as well as our rent on the Newcastle flat.
“When things like that happen it really restores your faith in humanity, knowing that so many people care.
“Now Rhys is better I want to get involved in charity work myself, and maybe do some good for other families who weren’t as lucky as us.”