A boy who spent 300 days in hospital and is unable to walk and talk has finally returned home.

Jude Keil, from Sittingbourne, baffled doctors after falling ill with a rare type of motor polyneuropathy – when multiple peripheral nerves become damaged – following a family holiday to Morocco.

The 10-year-old started showing symptoms in July 2022, including shortness of breath, but GP checks found nothing.

Then, while away in September of that year, Jude was struggling to swim in the pool and began “choking” while having lunch.

He became averse to eating and the right side of his body became weakened, but further GP and hospital visits and thorough checks yielded no answers as to what was wrong.

On February 9 last year, his dad Peter and mum Emma, both 41, took Jude for an ear, nose and throat appointment at Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham.

However, Jude did not show telltale signs of any major illness until the next morning when he was unable to breathe properly and went into respiratory arrest.

“We were simply in shock,” said Peter, who works as a signal engineer for Transport for London. “He was dying in front of our own eyes.

“He wasunable to expel the CO2 from his lungs and so was slowly and silently suffocating.

“The fear of the unknown was going through our heads constantly. To see our happy healthy boy suddenly change in what seems like such a short space of time both confused and frightened us.”

Jude was taken to the Evelina London Children’s Hospital that day and intubated and placed on a ventilator, which helps him now to breathe.

He woke up three days later but has been unable to talk and walk since. He has spent a total of 311 days in the hospital.

Peter said: “Him being not able to talk has been the hardest thing. While he still knows what is going on and you can tell what he is thinking he can’t express himself with his own voice as a 10-year-old should.”

Jude is learning to communicate via a tablet and specialised software and is “adapting” by using “great eye expressions”.

Peter said: “Being on the receiving end of an eye-roll has become quite a thing now.

“We are still hoping that with time he will be able to begin to be able to talk again.

“On the outside he’s different but on the inside he is still this funny, charming, cheeky 10-year-old boy.”

During his stay in the Evelina, Jude missed a lot of time at Grove Park Primary School but was able to attend the hospital school which made his “eyes light up”, Peter says.

He did, however, get to join a few Grove Park classes online where he could see his teachers and classmates.

Despite blood tests being sent to Spain and data being sent to the US and Germany, Jude’s condition has left doctors believing he could be the first patient in the world who has developed his disease, as his exact symptoms do not match any other condition.

While in the Evelina, Jude’s family took it in turns to stay in the hospital-run Ronald McDonald House in Lambeth, which his little sister – two-year-old Elodie – called “Jude’s house”

The “wonderful and simply excellent” house allowed Peter and Emma to be at Jude’s side within minutes, for which Peter says he “can’t thank them enough”.

“The support from the hospitals, and family and friends as well as the media has been surreal”, Peter added.

“It has been quite overwhelming. To think this time last year we were just an ordinary family – which we still are – but now things are a bit different.”

In the run-up to Christmas, the family hoped Jude would be able to come home. He was discharged from the Evelina on Thursday, December 14 before spending four nights at Medway and then heading home.

“We did not think when we walked out of the door in February that when we returned Jude wouldn’t be able to talk or walk,” Peter said.

“But it was amazing to have us all around the table on Christmas after the year we have had.

“We are lucky to have lots of wonderful friends who have been supportive. Some of them have even set up a quiz night at our local pub to raise money to adapt our house for Jude,” he added.

“It has been humbling.”

A fundraising page has also been set up to help pay for the adaptations which include a stair-climber chair, a mobile and collapsible hoist and a deposit for a heavily adapted and personalised accessible car – all of which will allow Jude to “continue living life”, Peter says.

“We want to give Jude a life that makes him feel he’s living the life he would have been living before he was limited by his devastating condition,” Peter said.

“Anything to help us with our new normal we will be forever grateful for.”

Click here to view the donation page.

The fundraiser has already raised more than £18,000.

Despite Jude’s condition, Peter says the family have just “cracked on” after a difficult first few months and are now taking every setback as a “learning experience”.

Jude and Peter, both petrolheads who love to watch the F1 Grand Prix together, were able to go to Silverstone in July which gave them “life-long memories”, thanks to the Make a Wish foundation and the Evelina hospital.

Peter said: “We’ve promised Jude no matter what, we will learn how to adapt and keep him enjoying life.”