A schoolboy struck down with variant CJD is no longer regarded as terminally ill, it emerged today.
Three years after Mr Jonathan Simms (20) was diagnosed with the disease, specialist carers brought in to nurse those close to death have pulled out.
Mr Simms, from west Belfast, is the longest known survivor of the illness. He has been undergoing pioneering treatment ever since his father, Mr Don Simms, won landmark battles at the High Courts in London and Belfast in December 2002.
The blood-thinning drug Pentosan Polysulphate (PPS), previously only tested on animals, has been given to him to prolong his life. After two spells in a Northern Ireland hospital where a top neurosurgeon infused the drug directly into his brain, he has been cared for by his parents and medical staff at his home in west Belfast.
But earlier this year Mr Simms met outside agencies brought in to help his family care for the former Northern Ireland Schoolboy soccer international.
One organisation, the Northern Ireland Hospice, has since decided its services are no longer needed. Another, Marie Curie, which deals with patients in the last six to eight weeks of life, is understood to be ending its home visits in January.
Mr Simms, who discovered PPS after undertaking a global hunt for a possible cure on the Internet, declined to comment.
PA