A six-year-old girl suffering from leukaemia has received a life-saving bone marrow transplant in the last two weeks.

The Croydon Guardian has been following the plight of little Imogin Appiah who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (All) in 2006.

She went through chemotherapy but had a relapse in March this year.

The brave girl, from Croydon, has spent weeks at a time in isolation in St George’s hospital battling the disease with her devoted mum Sheila by her bedside.

As her condition worsened, leukaemia charity ACLT organised a host of bone marrow registration in a bid to find a match for the brave little girl.

Due to the desperate shortage of donors within the black, mixed race and ethnic minority communities, Imogin had a one in 100,000 chance of finding a bone marrow match, compared to around one in five if she was white.

However a few weeks ago a male donor was found to be a match and Imogin underwent a life-saving transplant procedure.

Mrs Appiah said Imogin went into hospital on July 17 to start preparation for the bone marrow transplant.

She had to go through four days of total body radiotherapy twice a day to kill off her diseased bone marrow.

On July 19, she went into isolation and received a the transplant at 11.30am at the Royal Marsden Hospital.

She has been in isolation until yesterday and is recovering extremely well.

Beverley De-Gale, the founder of the ACLT and mum of Daniel De Gale, who suffered from Leukaemia, said: “I have never heard of such a quick recovery.

“It usually takes up to five weeks to recover. She is running around the wards and is getting her appetite back.

“She asked me to bring her a snakes and ladders game so she can play me when I go and visit her.”

The little girl’s thrilled mum said she owed the Croydon community a huge debt of thanks for turning out in their hundreds to support Imogin over a series of bone marrow registration drives.

She said: “After immense anticipation and anxiety Imogin finally received a life saving transplant from an unrelated donor.

"I just want to say thank you so much to the Croydon public, the Royal Marsden and St Helier Hospital, the Croydon Guardian and to everyone, especially all my family and friends for their love and support during this ordeal.”

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