A MOTHER whose four-year-old son became a ball of flames after playing with a lighter today issued a Christmas warning to parents.

Catherine Cochrane, 27, described how she found her son Robert Yates on fire in his bedroom in Belfield Road, Accrington, six weeks ago.

Today, she urged families not to leave lighters within the reach of young children to stop such a horrific accident happening again.

Robert had picked up a lighter from around the house some time in the first week of November and taken it to his bedroom, probably hiding it under his bed.

Days later Catherine took Robert to bed as usual at 8pm but was startled by screams coming from his room two minutes later.

She said: "I ran upstairs, I had never heard him scream like that before.

"I went into the bedroom and the top half of him was just in flames, it was horrific. They were quite big flames, his T-shirt had just gone up."

Catherine rolled Robert tightly in his bed quilt.

"I pushed him down as quick as I could, ripped his clothes off and held him in wet towels until the ambulance came," she said.

Catherine was helped by her brother Robert, 22, and his girlfriend Catherine Howson, 18, who comforted Robert and called for an ambulance.

He was taken to Blackburn Infirmary with severe burns to his body but was then transferred to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.

Catherine said it was at the hospital that she thought about the possibility of losing Robert.

She said: "There were lots of medical staff around him, for the first couple of hours we were really worried but they were so good.

"For the days after it was like being in a dream, I couldn't believe what had happened."

Robert was kept in hospital for three weeks where he received numerous skin grafts on his stomach, up to his neck and on his arms. Doctors used skin from his thighs and calves to rebuild the skin on his torso.

Initially doctors did not think Robert would be home for Christmas, but he surprised everyone with the progress he made and was home at the beginning of the month. Catherine said: "He's been so brave, I just feel lucky. At Alder Hey you meet parents whose children are not going to get better.

"If Robert's bed had caught fire, or if I was putting the rubbish out and hadn't heard his screams, then he wouldn't be here today. We are going to have a special Christmas now."

Robert has asked for Action Man figures off Father Christmas.

Robert's school - Woodnook County Primary, in Hudson Street - has done its bit by raising money for Alder Hey.

Catherine said: "I will now only have one lighter in the house and that is always in my pocket.

"My advice to other parents is to do the same."