A YEAR’S dedicated fundraising by a young transplant patient and his family has paid off to the tune of almost £1,900.

Eight-year-old Kyle Spencer, from Northallerton, suffers from a rare immune system deficiency disease and heunderwent a second bone marrow transplant in February at Newcastle’s Great North Children’s Hospital.

Despite spending months in isolation in an infection-beating “bubble” – a clinically-sealed bedroom – he has since made a successful recovery and is now back at Broomfield School.

Together with sister Ashleigh, 10, mother Cécile and father Peter, he harnessed the generosity of local businesses and the school to raise more than £1,530.

Much of the money was raised at an auction of promises at the school, while a concert arranged by Northallerton Silver Band back in March – when Kyle was still in his “bubble” – raised a further £350.

“We’d like to thank everyone who has helped our fundraising, from friends and family members to local shops and businesses, and of course people from the school,” said Cecile, a theatre nurse at Northallerton’s Friarage Hospital.

“Kyle is so happy to be able to be with his friends again at school and to feel like a ‘normal’ boy,” she added, explaining that he still receives a lot of medical treatment, including weekly injections.

The money will go to the Great North Children’s Hospital’s Bubble Foundation, which supports the work of the hospital’s bone marrow transplant unit.

It will help buy laptop computers to help transplant patients keep in touch with their families while they are in isolation and will also be used for craft activities.

Fund-raising manager Gill Johnston said: “To have the Spencer family help other children when they have been through so much themselves is just fantastic.”