The brave seven-year-old is only the SECOND child in the world to be cured of the genetic disease called NEMO.

It crippled his immune system, leaving him close to death, and doctors decided his only chance was a risky pioneering treatment - where he was kept in a bubble.

Pioneering ... Rhys is his bubble room

Wales News Service

For two months Rhys was sealed into a space-age airtight chamber where even his parents Dawn and Kevin were not allowed to touch him.

Just one kiss from his mum could have killed him as his entire immune system was killed off by chemotherapy.

Rhys then underwent a complete bone marrow transplant to put a new immune system into his young body.

And seven months later he is finally preparing to go home to Newbridge, Gwent, with doctors delighted at his progress.

NEMO as a condition was only discovered recently and Rhys was diagnosed with it when he was three.

Victims have a deficiency in their immune system which puts them at deadly risk from even the most common childhood infections.

It is called NEMO after the name of the gene that doesnt function correctly in the immune system.