Businessmen and dignitaries will celebrate the Chinese New Year in style and help a youngster crippled by meningitis.

Four-year-old Kyle Barton needed life-saving operations to amputate all his limbs after contracting meningitis on holiday in Tenerife last year.

The youngster has also survived septicaemia, two heart attacks and both kidney and liver failure. At one stage doctors gave him less than a one per cent chance of survival.

Kyle's bravery so impressed Alan Cooper, the general manager of Napoleon's Casino in Bolton Road, Bradford, and Peter Chiu, who owns the Don Wang takeaway restaurant in Cullingworth, that they have arranged a special fund-raising evening to coincide with the Chinese New Year celebrations.

Kyle's mother, Jamie Barton, of Sheffield, works for the A&S Leisure Group in Sheffield, which owns the Bradford casino, and Mr Chiu is vice-chairman of the West Yorkshire Chinese Community Association.

The fund-raising event will take place next Monday at the Jade Palace Chinese restaurant in Leeds. It will be attended by Bradford's Lord Mayor, Councillor Tony Cairns, and the Chinese Government's Consul General, Chi Tung Wong, who is based in Manchester.

Guests will be entertained by traditional dragon and lion dancing and will tuck into an afternoon-long nine-course Chinese meal.

More than £6,000 has already been raised by staff at Napoleon's. Mr Cooper said: "This lad will really be up against it in the future and anything we can do to help would be great.

"The Chinese community have really responded well to Kyle's plight."

Mr Chiu said the traditional new year celebrations will be combined with fund-raising activities including a raffle with a top prize of a return trip to Hong Kong.

Kyle's grandfather, Philip Barton, said: "We really appreciate the efforts made in Bradford. Kyle's a courageous little lad and he's come through all the odds to survive but he'll need a lot of help in the future.

"He's just got some artificial legs and we're trying to get him to walk.

"It's hard work but he's determined and he's remained happy, despite everything."

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