Dean Boyce is back playing his favourite sport – after surviving two major brain operations and meningitis within a fortnight.
The 12-year-old had been complaining of blurry vision when he was reading and his mum thought it was a sign he needed glasses.
But after a visit to the optician and then the eye clinic at Inverness’s Raigmore Hospital, tests confirmed he had a build up of fluid caused by a “blockage” in his brain.
Dean, who remarkably had no other symptoms, was at school when his mum, Lynn, got a call from doctors saying he needed to be admitted straight away.
Less than 24 hours later he was in theatre 170 miles from home, receiving life-saving surgery to redirect the fluid around a tumour in the centre of his brain
The procedure was a success – but just two days after he got home, Dean was struck down with deadly bacterial meningitis and was rushed back to Glasgow for a second major operation on his brain.
Mrs Boyce 38 said: “It was absolutely devastating to think we could lose one of our children.
“We couldn’t believe it. He should have been having headaches and being sick but he was just so healthy.
“He still has the tumour. They haven’t been able to remove it because it’s right in the centre of his brain close to all the tiny veins and, if they did, it could go either way.
“But Dean hasn’t let his tumour stop him. He’s sports mad and was back playing football three months after his operations.
“He’s amazed us all. He’s had two major brain operations but to him it’s ‘just an operation’.”
The brave youngster, who dreams of being a professional footballer, has now written his own account of his ordeal to support Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity’s Christmas Appeal, which aims to raise £200,000 for a state-of-the art neurological endoscope.
It would be the first of its kind in a Scottish children’s hospital and Dean knows it could help improve the outcomes for other children and possibly himself if he ever needs further surgery.
Dean, who trains with Inverness Caledonian Thistle Under-13 side, said he would be “forever grateful” to everyone at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow for getting him back to full health.
He said: “I have achieved so much since my operation.
“Without the care and support from the neurological team and the staff on ward 3a none of this would have been possible.”