LITTLE Leo Jones looks the picture of health - but the next few weeks could prove to be a decider between life and death for the Gwent youngster.

The three-year-old from Newport is in end-stage kidney failure, but cannot have dialysis.

Attempts to put any tubes into his body have caused serious illness, including peritonitis, leaving him battling for his life.

His kidneys have no function and protein toxins are building up in his body to a life-threatening level.

He has never been able to eat food, and he exists on formula carefully regulated by a dietician to remove as much protein as possible.

The youngster has to take a cocktail of seven different drugs every day and two injections a week, and any cough or cold lands him in hospital.

Now, his family are hoping that test will prove his body is able to undergo a kidney transplant which could transform his life forever. And then, they hope to find a match for him.

Leo, from Ringland, was given just a ten per cent chance of survival when he was born with a tumour on his spine in 2005.

After surviving a cardiac arrest at just two-weeks-old and undergoing a painstaking operation to remove the tumour, doctors revealed his kidneys were permanently damaged.

During Leo’s pregnancy his mother, Katherine Whatley, 27, pressed doctors to take an additional scan of her baby.

She said: “I had had a child before and I felt something was not right, so I asked the doctors to check for me.

“When they found the tumour I was shocked as I was not expecting the news to be that devastating.”

Specialist doctors at King’s College Hospital London inserted a fibre optic laser into Ms Whatley’s belly during the pregnancy to try and close blood vessels to stop the tumour growing.

The day after a second attempt of this process Ms Whatley was put into an induced labour at the University Hospital of Wales, Hospital in Cardiff.

Leo was born with severe swelling to his body due to excess fluid that had built up inside him.

He was airlifted to the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London that night, where he underwent an operation to stop the tumour growing.

A second operation was postponed due to the London bombings on July 7, 2005, on which day Leo later suffered a cardiac arrest.

Doctors managed to resuscitate him but revealed he had complete kidney failure.

Surgeons eventually removed frail Leo’s tumour when he was three-weeks old.

After spending 11 months in three different hospitals, Leo was finally allowed home, where he was kept on a ventilator for another six months.

Leo underwent a further 13-hour operation in September last year to increase the size of his bladder.

Now, due to his low immune system he is unable to undergo dialysis treatment for his kidney failure because his body will not accept any access tubes.

Ms Whatley added: “He has come on loads from how he was. He has never eaten real food in his life, but he is happy and content and a lovely little boy.

“We are waiting to find out what an MRI scan next month tells us now, to see what the next stage will be.”

If doctors decide Leo’s body is suitable for a kidney transplant he will be placed on a waiting list while specialists decide if his father, Gareth Jones, is a suitable match.

Leo was chosen by the Kidney Wales Foundation as the face of their “Walk for Life” fundraising event.

To find out more about the Walk for Life fundraising scheme call 029 20343940 or visit www.kidneywales.com.