A Swindon school has rallied around the parents of a five-year-old boy after their worlds were turned upside down by an extremely rare diagnosis.

Stratton couple Simon and Mihaela Howard were told in May last year as their son, William, lay in a coma that he had a life-changing form of mitochondrial disease called DNM1L.

After he miraculously recovered from the coma and was able to leave hospital, the family have had to make serious adjustments to their lives with Mihaela quitting her job as a nurse to provide full-time care.

Inspired by William, who has been able to return to school, Grange Infant School held a 'bake sale to raise money for the Lilly foundation - a charity dedicated to fighting the disease.

The school's principal Eleanor Rushen-Gough explained why .

"William is an absolute delight at school, so loving and caring despite the challenges he has had to face and those yet to come. We are so happy to see him in the classroom and being able to take part in the lessons with the class.

"He is just a joy to teach and have in school.

"Mitochondrial disease is such a rare and devastating condition and it is so terrible to see such a young boy like William being affected by it that we really wanted to raise awareness.

"Whatever we can do as a school to support the family and raise awareness of this devastating disease will hopefully help in some small way."

The event went extremely well, with schoolchildren and their parents all baking cakes for a bake sale, an event chosen so that William could join in as well. Together they raised £653.20 for the charity.

"The amount of cakes baked and brought in was truly remarkable. It goes to show how fabulous our school community is with showing such support for the school fundraiser and the family," Eleanor added.

William's parents were thrilled with the school's efforts with the event, but also credited it for being a fantastic source of support throughout.

"The school have gone out of their way to help William. Teachers were going to see him in hospital when he was in a coma and reading to him - they really are amazing and we can't thank them enough.," Mihaela said.

The family are now fundraising for an accessible playhouse for William, which you can support here - https://gofundme.com/f/playhouse-for-william.