After years of avoiding simple treats such as Mars bars, cereal and curries, a whole new world of food is opening up for Jonny Betts.

The youngster, who attends Oakwood Park Grammar School, Maidstone, has suffered from a peanut allergy, since a very young age.

But a pioneering research project at a Cambridge hospital looks likely to cure the teenager’s allergy.

A year ago, Jonny, 13, began a peanut "desensitisation" programme at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge.

Patients began by eating tiny amounts of peanut flour, which Jonny’s parents added to drinks and yoghurts, gradually increasing the dose.

A year on, and Jonny can now eat 32 peanuts a day.

His mother, Gill, 49, of Batchelors, Pembury, who is head of science at St Simon Stock catholic school, Maidstone, said: "We had some hiccups along the way.

"Early on in the study, he suffered an anaphylactic shock, after the dose was increased too high. It was frightening and awful but there were doctors on hand, everything was monitored and they were brilliant."

It was during a family holiday in France, when Jonny, then aged two, showed signs of the allergy after eating a peanut.

"He spat it out and vomited," added Mrs Betts. "When he was six years old he was diagnosed.

"We had to be so careful about what he ate and so many food labels state things are made in factories that have handled nuts.

"We got round it by buying things locally, such as meat from the local butcher."

Gradually doctors running the trial introduced Jonny and other children to peanut chocolate and then peanuts themselves.

"Jonny is able to enjoy things like Snickers and Mars bars," Mrs Betts added. At the end of the study we took him for a Thai meal to celebrate and he had never experienced those flavours before."

Four patients took part in the Addenbrooke's study and all are now able to eat at least four peanuts a day. It is the first time subjects have been given oral doses of peanut flour.

Medics hope the successful study can be replicated in adults.