A BRAVE toddler who suffers from a rare blood disorder celebrated his second birthday surrounded by friends and family.

Although he looks like a healthy two-year-old, William Rhodes, from Acomb, has diamond blackfan anaemia, which means his body cannot produce red blood cells and he needs a blood transfusion every five weeks.

The disease only affects about 700 people worldwide, and means extra iron builds up in William’s body with every transfusion, so his parents have been trained to carry out a procedure at home to help reduce the levels.

Ben Rhodes, William’s father, said the home treatment was difficult but necessary. He said: “It’s a medicine that’s pumped into his body over a period of 12 hours, three times a week, through a needle in his leg.

“It’s a bit of a struggle and quite upsetting, because he’s two-years-old and doesn’t understand what’s happening. We get it in okay but he’s not daft, so the time just before is very difficult.”

William’s mother, Caroline, helped produce a leaflet to explain her son’s illness and tell people how they can help.

She said: “We are raising funds to help give William a better quality of life, and Peter Turpin Associates at Clifton Moor kindly printed up 5,000 leaflets to help us spread the word.

“We’ll be packing bags with volunteers in supermarkets right up until Christmas Eve, and handing them out then. But before that we’ve been enjoying William’s party, and helping him open his toys.”

Ben said: “We won’t know how well he’s taking it for a few months yet. He has to until we can get him a bone marrow transplant.

“But there are so many tests and procedures to go through before we can start that, it’s quite a difficult thing to explain to people, so the leaflets are really helpful.”

William Rhodes was one of the winners of the Child Of The Year prize at The Press’s 2010 Community Pride Awards ceremony.