AN APPEAL for more North-East bone marrow donors has been welcomed by the mother of a transplant recipient.

The National Blood Service and the Leukaemia Care Society jointly launched the appeal at the service's Newcastle centre yesterday.

It aims to boost the number of donors on the British Bone Marrow Register and other UK registers, which receive an estimated 3,000 requests a year from hospitals across Britain, and provide between 200 and 250 donors.

The registries are needed when the tissue of patients and their families does not match, ruling out relatives as potential donors.

Nationally, many more donors from all parts of the community, and especially from ethnic minorities, are required to meet the demand.

Alyson Herbert, whose four-year-old son, Alex, underwent a bone marrow transplant after he was born with the genetic disorder XLP, said she hoped the appeal succeeded.

She said: "I would say it was a really worthwhile thing to do, because so many children I have seen on cancer wards and emergency wards are so dependent on a transplant.

"Being a donor involves an operation of less than an hour, and it is just to remove bone marrow from their back.

"Babies and young children go through it for their brothers and sisters, and it's so worthwhile because, for that little bit of discomfort, someone's life can be saved."

Alex, who lives on a farm near Barnard Castle, County Durham, received bone marrow from one of his elder brothers after another brother died of the same illness.

He spent eight weeks in a bubble unit, but is expected to return to school after Easter.

Stephen Fox, bone marrow transplant coordinator at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, the regional centre for transplants, said: "We cover a patch from the Scottish Borders to North Yorkshire, and from the east to west coasts, including three million people.

"In the average year, there a number of diagnoses of blood-related disorders, some of which are amenable to transplantation.

"The bottom line is that, by becoming a donor, people can be saving a person's life."

To register as a donor, contact the Blood Transfusion Service on 0191-219 4400