A CANCER patient will next week receive a potentially lifesaving bone marrow transplant from people he has never met.

Dad-of-one Kevin McDonnell, from Monk Fryston near Selby, learned he had cancer when he and his wife Fiona had taken a trip to Oxford to celebrate their first wedding anniversary in May.

After he was admitted to Oxford Hospital he was given the devastating news that he had leukaemia and would require urgent treatment.

Following several rounds of chemotherapy Kevin, 52, will be given a bone marrow transplant next week from two anonymous donors – one from Britain and the other from Germany.

Kevin said: “I feel very lucky that there is a perfect match from a donor out there for me.

“We never realised until now how important it is that people sign up to the Anthony Nolan register, there are thousands of people out there who are looking for a selfless stranger to sign up.”

He is urging others to sign up to the bone marrow register, which involves an initially simple process similar to donating blood.

“I could have cried when I heard they had found a donor so soon,” Kevin said, “I have four brothers and one sister and when none of them was a match I wondered if we would find one.

“It’s a horrible experience but you have to get through it. I knew I was going to see the light at the end of the tunnel and this match has meant it’s happened sooner than I thought.”

Kevin and Fiona have launched a “Fit to Spit” campaign on social media and will be holding an event at Selby Rugby Club on November 15 from 11am to 5pm to encourage members of the public to join the Anthony Nolan register.

They would like young people aged from 16 to 30 to provide a saliva sample in order to join the register which could be used to match potential bone marrow donors to blood cancer patients like Kevin, for whom a transplant may be their best hope of a cure.

Jo Buckton, from Anthony Nolan, said: “We hope Kevin’s campaign will help increase the number of new potential lifesavers donors to the register. Kevin’s story highlights how people who need a transplant rely on the generosity of a stranger and we hope that more potential lifesavers selfless strangers join our register to become donors and give others like him the gift of life.”

“What many people don’t realise is how easy it is to join the bone marrow register – it simply involves filling in a form and providing a saliva sample. Ninety per cent of donations take place via PBSC (peripheral blood stem cell collection). This is an outpatient appointment and is similar to donating blood.”

To join the register, you must be aged between 16 and 30, weigh more than 7st 12lbs (50kgs) and be in general good health.

For more information about Anthony Nolan’s work or to sign up online, please visit www.anthonynolan.org