WHEN five-year-old Benjamin Halliday came home from school with head lice, his parents were delighted.

Such unwelcome visitors do not usually provoke broad smiles from parents. But the moment was seen by his mother, Helen, and father, Gary, as proof that their lives had returned to normal, after 18 months of anguish as brave Benjamin battled a rare, aggressive tumour.

Mrs Halliday said Benjamin had returned home from school and told her he had head lice. "It was amazing, because he had his hair back," said Mrs Halliday. "We were delighted."

Benjamin had to undergo nine courses of chemotherapy when he was three years old, before he was given the all-clear by doctors.

His parents, who live in Hollinside, near Lanchester, County Durham, became worried after noticing a swelling in his genitalia and took him to their GP.

"Within 20 minutes, he was rushed to hospital in Durham," said Mrs Halliday. "We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at the RVI in Newcastle, where they told us it was a tumour."

He was diagnosed on August 15, 2002. Four days later, the infant underwent a major operation. Chemotherapy followed and he was given the all-clear in February last year.

The family felt life had finally returned to normal when he started at St Michael's RC School in Esh, near Durham, last September.

His recovery made Mother's Day all the more special for Mrs Halliday yesterday.

She said seeing her son back to his boisterous best had even prompted her to cut her weight, after she piled on the pounds during his illness.

"It was an absolutely terrifying, bewildering experience," she said. "You cannot comprehend it without going through it.

"I found I turned to food. I was comfort eating and put on about two-and-a-half stones in six months."

By the time Benjamin had recovered, she had increased from a size 14 to a size 22.

She joined a Slimming World group in Tanfield Lea Workingmen's Club, near Stanley, last year, and has since lost more than five stones.