Children facing months of hospital treatment have been given something to ease the pain.

Eight-year-old Aaron Soanes, who has leukaemia, found that playing computer games took his mind off his needle-phobia.

And now the brave youngster from High Woods in Colchester has handed over a brand new PlayStation to the children's ward at Colchester General Hospital.

Aaron has been a regular on the ward over the past four years, and his family and friends decided that the popular games console would be a good way of saying thank you to the nurses and doctors.

His dad Shaun said: "Most children have a fear of needles, and the play specialist suggested that Aaron used a computer to distract him. It really worked.

"The system they had here was a bit antiquated so we said we'd get them a new one."

In fact, it was a family friend who beat them to it and bought the PlayStation for Aaron and his six-year-old brother Alex to present to the hospital.

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