The parents of a boy with a rare blood disorder today make an emotional appeal to Oxford Mail

readers - please help cure our son.

An international search is being launched to find the crucial person who can give seven-year-old Daniel Leggett the chance of a normal childhood.

Daniel, seven, of Southmoor, near Abingdon, urgently needs to find someone with the same bone marrow type to help him fight the disorder aplastic anaemia.

The condition means Daniel's body is not making its own blood and doctors are keeping him going with transfusions every six days.

Even slight cuts or bruises are extremely dangerous for the Greycotes School pupil because his blood doesn't clot properly.

And because he cannot fight infection, his parents Melanie and Nick have to whisk him into hospital at the first sign of any temperature - something that has happened every week for the last month.

The only cure for the condition, which affects one in two million children, is a bone marrow transplant. But Daniel's great-great-grandfather was from Sri Lanka and he has a particularly unusual tissue type.

Now Melanie, 43, and Nick, 39, are urging more people in Oxfordshire to register as donors, which would increase the national register and boost Daniel's chances of finding a match. Melanie said: "Every extra name on that register is an extra ray of hope for Daniel. It's as simple as that. What a wonderful feeling it would be if you managed to give somebody a gift like that.

"I would willingly swap places with him but I can't. I just want someone to wave a wand and make it better."

The Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust, which links donors with those needing transplants, is organising a special donor clinic in Oxford in August to encourage people to register as donors.

Regional appeal co-ordinator Diane Howe said: "The trust is pulling out all the stops to find a donor for Daniel. I'm appealing to all residents in the county to consider - can I help find a cure for this little boy?"

And she said Daniel told her: "If people register it could help me get better but also other people with similar diseases might find a cure too."

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