LITTLE fighter Finley Harding has overcome a rare neurological disorder that affects just one in 10 million people every year.

But at the age of four, the Covingham School pupil knows little about what he has been through, which is why mum Rebecca Harding had documented his fight with Opsoclonus Myoclonus Syndrome (OMS) and his recovery to show him when he is older.

However, last Monday, Rebecca was leaving her home in Ramsbury Avenue in Penhill, when she dropped her phone in the road. When she realised 10 minutes later that she was without her Blackberry Curve, she returned home and was devastated to discover that it had gone, along with the precious memories of her son's childhood and his terrifying fight for life.

Rebecca, who is Finley’s carer, said: “I don’t care about the phone. All I care about is the memory card, it has sentimental value. There are more than 500 photos on there of Finley and loads of videos I took of him during his illness.

“I wanted to show them to him when he is a bit older and understands, so he knows what he has been through.

“He has been through so much, we call him our pin cushion after all the blood tests he has done, but he has been so strong.”

Finley was diagnosed with the illness just before his second birthday, a month after his MMR vaccination.

Rebecca and dad Ben Jennings, 26, first noticed something was wrong when he began falling over several times a day and experienced difficulty with his walking.

“It all happened so quickly,” said Rebecca. “The next day his hands were shaking like he was cold. Then his legs and feet were twitching, he couldn’t walk or crawl, he just couldn’t co-ordinate anything.

“Then he started almost fitting in his sleep, which I recorded on my phone and showed to the GP which helped them diagnose OMS. It was such a scary time for us, it was horrible because I had never heard of the illness before. Our world was turned upside down.”

The family spent months travelling to and from the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford but because the illness is so rare, a number of medications were trialled until a suitable one was eventually found.

“We had scan after scan – head, MRI, body, MIBG scan, EEG scan, lumbar puncture, ultrasounds – all to look for a tumour associated with the syndrome,” said Rebecca.

“They all came back negative. So they said it was started by a mystery virus – I blame the MMR jab.

“He has recovered, but if he catches anything like chicken pox, he can relapse.

If anyone has information on the phone, call the Adver on 01793 501809 or drop the memory card at reception.