FOLLOWING a three year appeal started in the News Shopper, a 10-year-old boy with a rare blood condition has had a successful bone marrow transplant to cure him.

Jamie Zammit was diagnosed in 2005 with Fanconi anaemia - a genetic blood disease which makes him prone to infections, bleeding, fatigue, haemorrhaging and cancer.

His mother Donna, of Chatterton Road, Bromley Common, was told by specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital that Jamie needed a bone marrow transplant to survive.

But because he had a rare tissue type, it would be hard for the doctors to find a suitable donor.

The 36-year-old mum said: “I decided to do my own appeal and rang the News Shopper.”

More than a year after Jamie had been diagnosed no matches had been found and the Zammits were considering IVF to have a baby with the right tissue type as a last resort.

“The News Shopper did a front page, that set the ball rolling and generated so much interest everywhere.

“Because he has a rare tissue type, it was going to be so hard to find a donor.

“It’s been a four-year nightmare.”

Mrs Zammit, her husband Tom, 34, and their three other children Tommy, 12, Roberto, six, and Lorenzo, five, were not possible donors.

News Shopper followed the family’s struggle from then on.

After being told they would not be able to have IVF, Mr and Mrs Zammit decided to have another child naturally, but when Donatella was born in February last year she was not a match either.

Mrs Zammit, originally from Malta, returned there to start a campaign asking people to get tested to see if they would be a match for Jamie.

The response from the public was good but Malta does not have a bone marrow register or the facilities to test people.

The mother-of-five then went to the European Parliament asking them to encourage Malta’s government to set up a register and more facilities.

She said: “When you are dealing with a very sick child, you would do whatever it takes. It was our goal to save Jamie’s life. You have to pull out all the stops.”

Then out of the blue, Great Ormond Street Hospital was informed that a man in Spain had just been tested and found to be a match for Jamie.

The bone marrow cells were taken from the unknown donor in Spain and sent by courier to London where Jamie underwent a successful transplant operation.

He was able to leave hospital six weeks later in November and is now recovering at home.

If his condition continues to improve rapidly then he may return to school this summer.

Mrs Zammit said: “It came completely out of the blue. It was fantastic. I kept believing that he was going to be ok.

“Jamie has always been a fighter - he’s a very strong person.”