A BABY has given the gift of life to a man suffering from leukaemia thanks to revolutionary new treatment.

Stephen Knox has become the first adult in Britain to receive a bone marrow transplant using blood from a baby's umbilical cord.

The 31-year-old nurse from Middleton-St-George, near Darlington, underwent the treatment after being given only months to live.

The procedure, previously only used on children, was developed by Professor Stephen Proctor at Newcastle Hospital Trust's Haematology Unit and Newcastle University.

He discovered a way to bulk up stem cells from blood from discarded placentas and umbilical cords which does not match the sufferer's.

The operation was carried out on Mr Knox earlier this year after various chemotherapy sessions failed to stem the leukaemia. Mr Knox was given treatment to kill off his own bone marrow and then injected with the mixed cord blood which has grown into new bone marrow.

Prof Proctor said it was still early days but Mr Knox had responded well to treatment.

Mr Knox, who underwent the procedure in February, is now in remission and still recovering in hospital.

Prof Proctor said: "It's a really exciting development and opens up huge possibilities. It has been carried out 23 times in the UK on children but never with an adult."

Mr Knox said he may never have had the pioneering treatment if he had lived just two miles away into North Yorkshire. He would have been sent to Middlesbrough rather than Newcastle, one of just two UK cities to have a cord blood bank.