AN East Lancashire vicar has told how his severely jaundiced infant grandson changed colour as he prayed for his recovery.

Accrington's area dean the Rev. Ian Enticott turned to the power of prayer when he visited his daughter Keren Franks' home in Cheshire.

There he saw his severely-ill two-week-old grandson Henry and was moved to seek divine aid.

The Rev Enticott, Vicar of St James and St Paul’s in Accrington, has now spoken for the first time about the child's illness and recovery from the yellowness of jaundice.

Now the regular at the Burnley ‘Parkrun’ is preparing to take on Sunday's London Marathon to raise money for medical charity Unique which supports Ben and other youngsters with rare chromosome disorders.

In his 'Weekly Sermon' on the Diocese of Blackburn's website the Rev Endicott tells of his visit to the Tarporley home of Keren, her husband Ben and Henry.

He writes: “Henry was a just a couple of weeks old and severely jaundiced.

"The doctors already knew he had a leaky heart valve and they were about to discover that he had a large chromosome deletion.

"They wanted to bring him in for extensive tests to find out why he was jaundiced for so long.

“When my wife Fiona and I visited our grandson in Cheshire and saw how yellow he was, I felt an overwhelming urge to pray for him at that moment saying: ‘Lord Jesus, please take away his jaundice, and give him his colour back’.

“Henry instantly changed colour from toe to head. My wife walked in a couple of minutes later and said that he looked a different colour. I told her that I had just prayed for him.

A couple of days later Henry went in to hospital when his family to be told that he no longer needed the proposed tests as everything appeared normal.

The Rev Enticott said: “Even the consultant couldn’t understand what had happened. It wasn’t long before the heart problem was no longer there either.

"Never before have I had such an instant answer to prayer.”

Henry, now nearly two, has continued his recovery, although he faces further challenges after being diagnosed with a specific ‘chromosome deletion’.

His parents have received help and advice from Unique and Ian, a keen runner for eight years, has secured one of its five London Marathon places hoping to raise more than £4,000.