Mother in worldwide search for donor save daughter

A DESPERATE mother has launched a global appeal for a bone marrow donor to save the life of her three-year-old daughter, who needs a stem cell transplant or she will die.

Ava Stark has a rare blood condition and needs a donor whose marrow can satisfy 10 out of 10 genetic markers.

After a search of the register worldwide – which has about 25 million people on it – only one suitable candidate was found.

Ava was due to have a bone marrow transplant next month after the donor agreed to proceed, but 10 days ago the family learned the donor had pulled out.

And now Ava’s devastated mother Marie, 33, is urging people from around the world to get tested as they desperately try to find a lifesaving match.

She said: “I need everyone who can to get tested because they could save my daughter’s life.”

Ava has a condition called inherited bone marrow failure and needs weekly platelet transfusions and two blood transfusions a month – both from donors – while she awaits a transplant

Ms Stark, a customer service adviser from Lochgelly, Fife, and mother-of-two, said her daughter was constantly falling ill and even got foot and mouth. She was rushed to hospital because of a blood clot in March before being diagnosed in April.

After undergoing tests and being transferred to Edinburgh Sick Kids Hospital, doctors originally thought she had leukaemia.

After failing to find leukaemia, they thought she had aplastic anaemia before concluding it was inherited bone marrow failure, and the hunt for a donor began.