A premature baby boy who battled back to health in an incubator paid for by Telegraph & Argus readers is now a "healthy and strapping" student.

Greg Buttrick was born with a weak spot on his chest causing him breathing difficulties on January 30, 1989. Now, nearly 18 years old, his early health problems are confined to the past.

His mother, Linda Brown, 43, of Hainsworth Moor Garth, in Queensbury, Bradford, was expecting her son to be born on April 4 but was rushed to Bradford Royal Infirmary two months early.

Mrs Brown said: "It was like a vigil going to hospital everyday for a month. I was kept in for a week but Greg had to stay in the incubator.

"He was born at 8.07 in the morning, but I was given two epidurals so I didn't get to see him until 6pm. I was sitting there looking at this photograph that didn't look anything like him.

"It seems hard to believe that he was so seriously ill back then because he's a tall, handsome, healthy and strapping young lad now," said mother-of-two Mrs Brown, who is a diner lady at Shibden Head Primary School in Queensbury.

The incubator that Greg recovered in had been donated to the BRI from the T&A after its Incubator Appeal, which aimed to raise £50,000 for equipment.

Greg spent the first month of his life in the special care baby unit at BRI and a fortnight in the incubator to regulate his temperature.

"I didn't have that mother's joy' that most mothers get taking their babies home, just an empty house," said Mrs Brown.

"For the first 12 months we had to watch his lower-than-normal antibody count. He was susceptible to infections and was only given the all-clear a year later.

"He was lucky considering he was never diagnosed with a particular condition."

Two hernia operations were performed on Mrs Brown's newborn before his first birthday.

"Staff at the BRI were fantastic, because we were there so much for that month, we became friends with a lot of the nurses," said Mrs Brown who lived in Horton Bank Top, Bradford, at the time.

"We kept in touch for a few years and some of them came to Greg's christening when he was five-and-a-half-months-old."

Greg went to Hollingwood Primary School, Bradford, and suffered badly every time he caught a cold as he grew up.

Mrs Brown said: "I was absolutely petrified when he first went to school, and over-protective really. Every time someone sneezed I was like, come over here!"

Now two years into a college course Greg is aiming for a career in photography. At 16 he left Thornton Grammar School to attend Dewsbury College where he takes an art and design multi-media course. He says he has no memory of his earlier health issues.

Mrs Brown said: "He's a typical young man, quiet-natured, stays in and does his own thing, a good lad."

e-mail: ben.barnett@bradford.newsquest.co.uk