BOLTON boy Tom Molyneux has suffered a setback in his battle to beat leukaemia.

The five-year-old had been allowed home following encouraging early signs that his body had accepted a life-saving bone marrow transplant performed at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

But today little Tom was back in a hospital isolation unit suffering from a variety of problems including a severe all-body rash, sky-high temperature, severe sickness and diarrhoea.

Mum Karen Molyneux told the BEN from a telephone by his bedside: "My lad's having a really rough ride at he moment, but he's going to be OK." Tom's troubles began when he fell ill just two days after being allowed to return to his home in Hibernia Street, Deane.

Doctors discovered that many of his cancerous blood cells had not been destroyed and were fighting new bone marrow transplanted into him from his 18-year-old brother Lee.

Tom was taken back to the hospital and given powerful drugs reducing his white blood cell count.

But side-effects are beginning to add to the rest of his energy-sapping ailments.

Karen explained: "The overall success of the transplant shouldn't be affected, but this has delayed his recovery." Tom is expected to remain in hospital for at least another week.

Meanwhile, Bolton schoolgirl Charlotte Russell, 13, who suffers from rare genetic disorder Fanconi anaemia, continues to recover at home from her life-saving bone marrow transplant.

But her parents Chris and Debra, of Sharples Avenue, Sharples, are still awaiting test results to confirm the operation has been a success.

A BEN team will be touring Bolton's town centre pubs tomorrow night to boost Charlotte's fund-raising appeal for children who need bone marrow transplants.

Reporters and photographers, dressed as the BEN's Floggit family, plan a jaunt around pubs with collection tins to top up Charlotte's efforts, which have so far raised more than £6,500 for the Children's Hospital.

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