A nine-year-old boy from Rickmansworth, who went without sweets or chocolate for a whole year, has raised nearly a thousand pounds for two hospitals which treated his brother.

Caimin Bugler, who attends York House School, Croxley Green, managed to last all of 2010 without eating a single sugary-snack.

The £820 he raised through sponsorship will be split between Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Northwick Park Hospital neonatal unit.

Kieran Bugler, his father, said: “Caimin's brother Thomas, who is now 18, was born prematurely and spent the first three months of his life in hospital, and Caimin wanted to say thank you.

“He did amazingly well to keep it going, I tried to do it with him and lasted three weeks.”

Caimin, whose favourite sweets are Fruit Pastilles, was so determined to make it through the year that he even resisted food or drink that contained chocolate as an ingredient.

He said: “It was excruciating but got easier as the year went on. Easter was worst when I could smell the chocolate through the boxes in the super market.

“I had a big chocolate feast planned for a minute past midnight on January 1, but could only manage two bites out of the white chocolate snow man.”

Caimin presented the money to both hospitals on Tuesday April 12.