Robert Hughes of Cherry Hill Drive in Borras, will travel to South Africa in the summer just 18 months after recovering from an operation that left him paralysed down one side.

The 16-year-old impressed trust members of Jolt, a charity set up to help children affected by medical trauma, with his steely determination and sparkling personality that they offered him a place on the trip of a lifetime.

The popular Rhosnesni High School student battled back from an operation in November 2006 to remove a brain tumour that left him in a wheelchair.

The senior prefect was picked from 16,000 applicants and will join 23 other teenagers in July for the £4,500.

He will be meeting the British ambassador, trekking across the Calahari desert, going whale and dolphin watching, visiting an elephant farm and meeting local schoolchildren during his four week visit.

He has already exceeded the £600 sponsorship needed to go by taking part in a 14,000 ft parachute jump this weekend.

His proud father David spoke to the Evening Leader about his determined return to good health.

David said: "He didn't need a lot of encouragement from us because he was determined he was going to get better.

"He has never let it get him down.

"My wife says everyone he meets he sprinkles a little bit of magical dust because they all take to him. He has an infectious personality."

Robert was diagnosed with a brain tumour eight years ago was left with epilepsy. It was controlled with medication and the tumour was benign but after a number of seizures, an MRI scan revealed the tumour had grown.

In November 2006 he went to Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool for a routine operation to remove it. David told of his worry when the operation went wrong.

He said: "We were told he would be in theatre for four hours and that he would be out of hospital in five days.

"He was in there eight hours and didn't leave hospital for five weeks.
"There was a one per cent chance of it going wrong and we were unlucky that Robert was the one per cent."

David and his wife, Erica, kept a vigil at his bedside with the neurosurgeons.

He added: "We were wondering if we had done the right thing but we didn't have much choice, without the operation he would have eventually ended up disabled.

"We nearly lost him. His vital signs were there but they were fading.

"He was unconscious for five days and when he did come round he suffered memory loss and was completely paralysed down his right side.

"Then he developed a virus that put pressure on the surgery and caused a leak and had to have three further operations."

After returning home on Christmas Eve, Robert was sent to the Robert Jones Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen for two weeks of physiotherapy and hydrotherapy.

David said Robert's recovery had been helped by friends, family and work colleagues who he described as 'absolutely brilliant'.

He also said Robert's school had offered to pay for the sponsorship and local newsagents had been collecting money on their behalf.

The doting father said that Robert, who wants to be a doctor, was looking forward to the trip and to making new friends.

He said: "He thinks it is absolutely brilliant and is delighted. He is also very humbled. He keeps saying, 'why are all these people who don't even know me doing all this?'

"We say it's because that is the type of people they are, they think he deserves it."