THE youngest of four Hampshire brothers to undergo a lifesaving bone marrow transplant has suffered a setback in his recovery.

Eight-year-old Luke Hartley has spent the past two weeks back in hospital battling a virus.

Luke underwent a second bone marrow transplant, after the first attempt failed, before Christmas. He then spent Christmas and New Year in London's Great Ormond Street Hospital.

He has been back home in Romsey with his parents David and Allison and three brothers since mid-January, but was admitted to Southampton General Hospital two weeks ago with rotavirus.

Luke is once again in an isolation room, as he was at Great Ormond Street, because his immune system is still weak following the transplant.

Rotavirus causes vomiting, diarrhoea and a temperature.

Dad David said: "Luke caught the virus from his two brothers who, ironically, we think picked it up at the same hospital as Daniel was in for two nights before Easter with an eye infection. At the moment there is no clear end to the virus.

"He has been his usual brave self through all this and a model patient , although he was quite quiet this morning - he's spent too long in a small isolation room."

All four Hartley brothers were diagnosed with X-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome in November 2003 and their parents were told that, without bone marrow transplants, they were unlikely to live into their teens.

Joshua, 16, Nathan, 14, and 12-year-old Daniel have all had successful bone marrow transplants.

Luke's second transplant has been successful and he will return to school when his immune system is back to full strength.