by Nathan Bevan, Wales On Sunday
IT’S the Christmas they thought he’d never see.
This time last December the parents of little Rhys Harris were told that because of an ultra-rare genetic illness their son would have less than a year to live.
But now the courageous six-year-old from Newbridge has amazed doctors by being discharged from hospital just two months after receiving a life-saving bone marrow transplant.
“They say this time of year is a time for miracles and that’s what we’ve been given – a miracle,” said Rhys’ ecstatic dad Kevin, 43.
“Last Christmas we took him to Lapland because we honestly believed it would be last one he’d ever see.
“I never would have dreamed back then I’d be having this conversation with you now. I would never have dared.”
Rhys’ plight touched hearts around Wales.
The Hollybush Primary school pupil was diagnosed in 2004 as having NEMO, a terminal condition that affects only 35 people in the world.
“NEMO attacks the body’s immune system and leaves the sufferer extremely susceptible to disease,” said Kevin, who gave up his job running a car repair firm to be his son’s full-time carer.
“Then when Rhys contracted TB, we were told there were drugs that could fend it off for a while but after a while they’d lose their effect and that would be it.”
Both he and wife Dawn, a former beautician, were left with the agonising choice of watching their son slowly die or risk him having a bone marrow transplant and the chemotherapy killing him instead.
Finally, in September this year, the Harris family were told a bone marrow match had been found for Rhys in the US, a moment they thought would never come.
“We’d waited so long to be told that, after a while, you begin to wonder if it would ever happen – it’s sad but inevitable,” said Kevin.
So, along with Dawn and older son, Morgan, they prepared to make the move to Newcastle, the General Hospital there being one of only two places in the UK where the gruelling medical procedure could take place.
“The doctors only gave it a 30 to 40 per cent chance of it working and we were told Rhys would be in a bubble for up to nine months afterwards,” he said, describing the grim prospect of their boy being kept in strict isolation in sterile ward while being unable to so much as give him a kiss.
“We couldn’t even hug him unless we’d been surgically scrubbed first
“But even that had to be kept at a bare minimum just in case we passed on an infection that could kill him.”
The whole process was made even harder because Rhys is severely deaf – the result of meningitis at nine months old.
“It’s difficult for Rhys to communicate his feelings, but he’s really tough and resilient,” said Kevin. “Then again kids tend to be a lot better at adapting to these sort of things than the adults do.
“And in a way, it is not a bad thing that we couldn’t really tell him what was going on. That way he stayed blissfully unaware.”
Since October the family have been living in Newcastle, in a flat just four miles from the hospital, but they hope to be back in Wales by the Spring.
“We’re not out of the woods for another six months yet,” said Kevin.
“Rhys has a whole pharmacy of drugs to contend with, but it is not too bad.
“The main thing we’ve got to watch for is the chance that his body could still reject the bone marrow,” said Kevin.
“But he’s itching to go exploring with his brother and has asked me to get his metal detector ready for him.
“He is, to put it mildly, mad and has not stopped running around like a lunatic.
“Hopefully the novelty of being home will wear off soon and he will slow down.”
But right now, the family are preparing to be together for Christmas.
Kevin said: “We want to make this the best Christmas ever, I know me and Dawn have already had the best present we could ever ask for.”
And what about Rhys, what does he want from Santa?
“Well, you know those big Argos catalogues?” asked Kevin.
“He wants everything in those!”
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