A plucky teenager who won a life-and-death battle when he was a baby is celebrating another landmark victory in his eventful life.

James Bottomley, 13, who nearly died from a respiratory virus shortly after being born prematurely, has won his first trials bike competition.

James, of Larch Drive, Odsal, Bradford, scooped top spot in his section of the closed-to-club trial at Bumpy’s motorcycle facility, in Birstall, only two years after taking up the sport.

He said: “I am quite proud of myself and really happy that I have been able to do it, especially considering everything I’ve been through.”

James said he thought he deserved a new trials bike after securing his first victory, and added that he wanted to go on to ride professionally.

His parents, Tracey and Jimmy Bottomley, said they never imagined their son could progress to live such a fun and action-packed life when he was born ten weeks prematurely, weighing only 2lb 4oz.

James spent the first seven weeks of his life in the specialist unit at Bradford Royal Infirmary. When he was allowed home, he was struck down with a life-threatening respiratory virus and was rushed to a specialist hospital in Manchester.

When his condition deteriorated, he was flown to Glasgow’s Yorkhill Children’s Hospital to have oxygen pumped directly into his blood because his lungs would not survive the ventilator for much longer. But he pulled through just in time and did not need the drastic treatment.

Mrs Bottomley said: “It was this time of year when he was really ill. He won the trial on the very same day he was diagnosed as being seriously ill 13 years ago. I just keep thinking to myself, 13 years ago we were fighting to get him to breathe and look at him now.

“I think of how it could have been so different.”

Mrs Bottomley said she still received a Christmas card each year from the medical staff who treated James in Glasgow. “I think that’s the most special card of them all. For them still to be sending one to us after all these years is amazing,” said Mrs Bottomley.

And James certainly has not forgotten about the doctors and nurses who helped to save his life, or the children who find themselves facing a similar fight to the one he went through. He has completed three separate charity bike rides, including a heroic 120-mile effort, to raise more than £1,000 to help the hospitals where he was treated and seriously-ill children.