A SEARCH for a bone marrow donor has begun for an eight-year-old girl after her little sister was ruled out of becoming a donor.

Mum Kayleigh Chapman faced a heartbreaking dilemma after medics struggled to take blood from Keira Filmer, seven, in a first step towards her potentially becoming a donor for big sister Lily May, who has leukaemia.

It had been hoped that Keira could have given her stem cells to her sister but this has been ruled out after the little girl became distressed.

Mrs Chapman said: “It’s quite difficult to get a seven-year-old to consent to a medical procedure when they don’t really understand it.”

“It took 45 minutes to persuade Keira to let the nurse put the needle in and then when they did, the vein popped. They had to try again and at that point I broke down. I was in a situation where I had to put one of my children through something horrible to save the other one.”

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Lily’s family, from Drakes Broughton, are now appealing for a donor to come forward to help her after discovering that, despite initially beating lymphoblastic leukaemia, she has relapsed four months later.

Mrs Chapman said: “We are feeling numb really, numb, anxious and scared. Lots of weird feelings and not really knowing which one is the right one.”

“Lily takes everything in her stride. This was our worst fear. It took me about an hour to get the courage to tell her she had relapsed, but she is absolutely amazing, and I get quite a lot of my strength from her.”

Mrs Chapman is confident a bone marrow donor will be found for Lily and she said it will mean ‘the world.’

“It means absolutely everything. It is literally saving my daughter’s life. Anyone who is on the register is saving someone’s life. It is such a selfless thing to do. More people need to get on the register because for some people it is the last resort. There is no other way.”

A swab drive will be held at Pershore Town Football Club on March 1, where anyone between the ages of 18-55 and in general good health can register and give a simple swab sample to see if they are a match for Lily.