He is the premature baby whose battle for life became a symbol of hope at the height of the pandemic.
Theo Stobbs was only four weeks old when he was photographed being handed to his mother in a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.
The infant, weighing just over two-and-a-half pounds, wore just a white nappy and a little woolly hat as he was lifted out of an incubator.
Strict Covid-19 rules meant that both his mum, Kirsty Anderson, 34, and nurse, Kirsty Hartley, had needed to put on a green Covid-19 mask before the loving handover could take place.
Today Theo is a happy, healthy baby – a bundle of smiles who’s well on his way to learning to crawl.
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To get to this point he has had to overcome not just being born three months early, but also being one of the youngest people in Britain to catch the lethal bug.
Both he and his mum tested positive after a single trip into the outside world from their home in Brierfield, near Burnley, Lancs.
Miraculously, Theo’s brother, Arlo, two on Monday, avoided the sickness despite frequently taking the infant’s dummy from his mouth and sneaking off with it.
Kirsty's baby weighed only 2lb 4oz when he was born at Burnley General Hospital on April 20. She was allowed only a single quick kiss before he was whisked away to an incubator.
His skin was so thin that neither she nor her partner, Leon Stobbs, 35, a self-employed plumber and gas engineer, could stroke him.
All they were allowed to do was gently cradle him in a containment hold.
The first nine weeks amounted to a fight for life. Luckily medics had managed to give his mum two steroid injections after her waters broke.
And that gave him a crucial head start by allowing his lungs to mature just a little before he was born.
Later, he went through three blood transfusions to help raise his oxygen levels.
Kirsty, an energy broker, said on Saturday night: “It’s been a surreal time, but somehow Theo has helped us all get through it”.
