Imagine not being able to take your baby for a walk because he needs to stay in a sterile bubble of clean air.

Some parents don't have to imagine, for them it is real. Their children suffer from a rare, inherited condition called Severe Combined Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or SCID. They are born without an immune system and cannot fight even the simplest of infection. Even the "common cold" passed on by a mothers kiss can be fatal. The only way of keeping them safe from infection is to care for them in a "BUBBLE" of clean air.

For "BUBBLE" babies their only chance of survival is to give them a new immune system. Giving them a Bone Marrow Transplant, a difficult and painful treatment, can only do this. If successful, they grow new immune cells and can leave their "BUBBLE". This takes about six months but can take longer.

Each child is nursed inside its own "BUBBLE", a high-tech invisible "BUBBLE" of totally clean air. Inside this, gowned parents and staff can care for their babies (but still no kissing)

The Children's Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at Newcastle Upon Tyne is only one of two units in the U.K and Ireland who can give these precious babies the meticulous medical and nursing care needed. We also provide a follow up service for these children and their families once they go home.

Children are referred to us from Scotland, Northern and Southern Ireland and from Northern England down to Birmingham and the Midlands. There are "BUBBLW babies from where you live too!

The "BUBBLE FOUNDATION " aims to raise funds to support these babies, their parents and to fund research required to advance this devastating disease.