48 year old man with fear of intimacy can it work?

[Who's that girl?]

I am interested in a man who is 48 years old (I am 32). He is single, never married and has not been in a relationship for many years. He has a strong fear of intimacy and because of this his previous relationships have failed. His fear of intimacy stems from his childhood when his mother left his father and took him to another country to live, he missed his dad terribly but his dad didn't bother to stay in touch with him and it broke his heart he was only 7 when this happened, his father is now dead. He looked and sounded different to the other kids in school and he was bullied terribly. He then became ill with severe inflammatory bowel disease and spent a lot of time between the ages of 10 and 14 in and out of hospital. On top of this his mother seems to have used him as a crutch through her life almost encouraging his problems so that he would stay bound to her so she wouldn't be alone. Even when he moved city as an adult she followed him. She is now in a nursing home.
He is terribly lonely and suffers from anxiety and bouts of depression but he is a wonderful guy and he has a lot of offer but he just panics every time someone gets too close and does something to mess it up. I know all this going into it. Is there anyway to make this work?