A 10-year-old boy who has spent the past five years severely ill with a rare condition that attacks his body, has made a remarkable recovery in less than six weeks.

Oliver Mulford, of The Causeway, Steventon, near Abingdon, needed regular hospital treatment for sarcoidosis, a disorder that often left him too poorly to join his friends at St Michael's Primary School, and even caused two bouts of meningitis.

But after starting a new course of injections six weeks ago, the football-mad youngster has boundless energy and is set to join a team for the new season.

His mother, Gill, 34, said: "We are exhausted, because we just don't know what to do with him now. We had a child that was always tired and lethargic and now he's just buzzing!

"We've been on holiday to Devon and he was running around every day and not going to bed until late -- that's something he's never been able to do before."

Oliver was two when he started to suffer from painful swollen legs, but doctors could not pinpoint what was wrong and it was two years before he was diagnosed with sarcoidosis.

The disease is caused when the immune system starts attacking the body for no apparent reason, leading to inflammation in different tissues and organs.

It is so rare that consultants at the John Radcliffe Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, both in Headington, Oxford, struggled to find ways to combat Oliver's condition, and he had to take a cocktail of medication.

As well as weekly doses of chemotherapy, he had steroids and daily drugs to combat the side-effects of his treatment.

Six weeks ago, doctors prescribed injections of a drug called etanercept, which targets inflammation. Oliver has two £100 jabs in his stomach every week, and it is likely he will have to take it for the rest of his life.

Mrs Mulford said: "Because there aren't many children using it and it's quite a new drug they told us not to hold too many hopes. They said 'just see how it goes', and that we should start seeing improvements in six to eight weeks. But it was almost instantaneous.

"He's only had 12 injections and we saw a difference after the first week. We are now reducing all his other medication. Fingers crossed, he will be going back to school as a normal child."

As a thank you for the care Oliver has received, the family, including dad Geoff, have raised £4,028 for ward 4C at the JR, by holding a dance and raffle.

Mrs Mulford said: "We thought we'd raise about £2,000, so we doubled our expectations, which is fantastic."