CAROLINE Jeffels died on Saturday. She was only 26. My wife, Carole, works with Caroline's mother, Jackie, and so, although I did not know her personally, I have followed closely her brave battle against leukaemia.

Caroline, though, disputed whether her battle was brave. Jackie said: "People told her 'you are so brave' but she would say that you're only brave when you've got a choice, and she didn't have a choice when she got leukaemia."

Respectfully, I would beg to disagree. You only really learn about a person's character when they are faced with a major problem, when they have to dig deep. Caroline certainly dug deep, ensuring that she enjoyed every moment of life that she was allowed - just before she died, staff at the University Hospital of North Tees organised a party on the ward for her and her friends. "Caroline was partying right until the end because of them," said her father, Barry.

She crammed a great deal into her 26 years. She was a qualified - and, by all accounts, a good - nurse, she took part in all kinds of sports, and she spent a year travelling Australia and Malaysia.

Caroline's death has caused me to recall that of another Stockton girl, Joanne Gillespie. You will remember her "Braveheart" poems and appeals. Joanne died in 1993 after a six-year battle against brain cancer. Her parents, Peter and Kath, raised £111,000 in her name which bought Middlesbrough General Hospital a laser to treat brain tumours. As well as all the wonderful memories that a young life leaves behind, this shows that something positive can come out of an untimely death.

Caroline's parents are doing the same in their own way. They are appealing, as Caroline wished, for more people to become bone marrow donors. Caroline needed a one-in-a-million match, and the international search took so long that, when one suitable American was found, it was too late. Doctors tried alternative treatment, using Caroline's own cells, which tragically didn't work.

When I learnt about this, I realised what a hypocrite I am. In this column and on every stage I am given, I am always banging on about law and order and how we all have to protect our own communities, how we all have to contribute to our own societies. I now realise it goes further than just law and order. For example, I've been meaning for years to donate blood. It doesn't hurt, it doesn't take long, and yet it is always one of those things that I don't quite get round to.

Becoming a bone marrow donor had never even occurred to me, yet all you need to do to get on the register is to give a blood sample. At first, though, when I was told that Caroline required a one-in-a-million match, I thought the odds were so long it wasn't worth my effort. But how many of us buy a Lottery ticket in the surefire knowledge that it will take a one-in-14-million chance for our numbers to match?

So, spurred by Caroline's parents' plea in the local evening paper, I contacted the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust which had found the American match. Unfortunately, when I phoned I was told that only 18 to 40-year-olds were eligible. I'm 46, but I think I am as fit as many 30-year-olds so I have requested all the information to see if I can find a way around the age limit.

I'll let you know how I get on. In the meantime, I will get around to arranging to donate some blood - and while I'm there, I shall think of Caroline and thank her for making me do something that is genuinely useful to other people. I may even help save the life of someone like Caroline who was so brave and whose death has left the world a poorer place.

* The Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust is on 0901-882 2234