"BUBBLE baby" Logan Wilkieson is recovering after a vital stem-cell transplant and blood transfusion which could save his life.

Eight-month-old Logan, from Horwich, was born with the ultra-rare condition, Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, which affects just one in 100,000 babies.

It weakens the immune system to the extent that any infection could prove deadly.

Little Logan first spent six weeks at Newcastle General Infirmary living in a bubble of clean air with everything having to be sterilised before he touched it to stop him picking up infections.

Then he underwent 12 days of chemotherapy.

This Wednesday he received his stem-cell transplant and transfusion. It will give him an 85 per cent chance of survival.

Mum Ruth Lawrie, aged 20, said: "He is all right. He has had the operation and transfusion and has picked up so well that he is playing all the time now.

"Now it's just a case of waiting to see if the cells grow properly in the body, which can take anything from six weeks to two years."

Ruth and her partner, Gareth Wilkieson, aged 22, had to give up their rented house in Horwich after Logan was admitted to hospital in Newcastle.

Ruth is now living in a specially provided flat near the hospital, while Gareth is sleeping at friends and his parents while continuing his job as a shutter-door fitter. He drives to Newcastle at weekends.

Logan was born on March 21. He was two weeks overdue and delivered by Caesarean section.

There did not initially appear to be any difficulties, but he started with a cough and was given an inhaler and medicine.

Later he was admitted to the Royal Bolton Hospital with sickness and diarrhoea. Then blood tests discovered Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome and Logan was transferred to the specialist unit in Newcastle, one of only two in the country.

If the stem cell transplant, from an umbilical cord - which doctors say is a perfect match - works, Logan should make a complete recovery and be able to live a normal life.

When Logan reaches a certain point in his recovery, he will be taken to a halfway house, where he will be allowed outside in a buggy fitted with a protective hood, before heading home.

He will still be vulnerable to infection and he will be kept away from large groups of people or pets for a few months.

Ruth said: "He will have to go for blood tests every so often just to make sure the bone marrow that was transplanted is growing.

"But eventually he should be able to live a completely normal life."

Logan's progress is being detailed in a blog created by Ruth's sister, Katie, which is on the website www.littlelogansblog.blogspot.com.