A brave young man from Weymouth has enjoyed his first Christmas dinner in nine years, after enduring chemotherapy and a major stem cell transplant this year.

Bailey Johns, 22, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Crohn's disease when he was 12 years old. After battling the disease for nine years and exhausting every other treatment option, he made the courageous decision to undergo a risky new stem cell transplant in Spring this year.

The operation is still in its trial phase, with Bailey being one of the first to go through the process, but he and his family hoped it would stop him having to live with the constant chronic pain he was suffering from.

Bailey described the treatment - two bouts of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant - as like "hitting the reset button" in the hope that other medications and treatments, which previously did not help him, might now work.

"It's a tough one," he said. "Because in so many ways there is such a long way to go, but hopefully my body will respond to one of the things we have tried before.

"The transplant has made me feel a lot better. There is much less inflammation now and it has almost given me a new lease of life to move forwards."

There were numerous complications through Bailey's month-long stay at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, such as allergic reactions to his medication, but he is glad that he went through with it.

He said: "At times it was very tough on all of us, it was a hard month especially, but the whole time I was just saying to myself: 'I will get better, this is not forever and I will walk out of this hospital one day.'

"Now the operation hasn't cured me, there will still be good and bad days, but it has given me the chance to try and do things with my life that I haven't been able to."

Bailey's life has been on hold for the past nine years. While his friends have been going through education and starting careers, Bailey has had to focus on his health.

He hasn't been able to eat an actual Christmas dinner since his diagnosis, with most years eating his food through a tube, however this year he will feast alongside his family.

"It's just another thing I haven't been able to do," he said. "I've lost the most valuable nine years of my life but now, I can start making plans."

Bailey said he doesn't talk about his transplant very often anymore. Instead he is focused on the future and the next chapter of his life because, for the first time in nine years, he could do anything he wants.