I was first diagnosed with Leukaemia when I was five years of age. I spent most of the next 2 years in hospital having chemotherapy and blood transfusions. Although I was only five it was like fighting a great war the chemotherapy made me very poorly.

After fighting for the two years, I went into remission; I thought that was the end of being ill. For five years and one month I was healthy. Then my mum and dad thought I didn’t seem so well.

I went to see my doctor, he sent me for a blood test…The results were back and it was bad news…My cancer had come back and I had to start another two years of chemotherapy again.

Halfway through the treatment the doctors and specialist decided that my best chance was to have a bone marrow transplant and radiotherapy, after a lot of searching and testing of my immediate family for a match the best match was found to be a blood cord (umbilical cord) from a blood cord bank in Barcelona.

After undergoing whole body radiotherapy to destroy my entire bone marrow, I received the transplant in September 2005 and although I was extremely ill I made steady progress and now after eighteen months I am back at school and doing very well.

Without the umbilical cord from the bank in Barcelona it is difficult to imagine where my health would be today and the sole aim of my campaign is for a public umbilical cord bank to be setup so other can receive similar help to the help I have been fortunate enough to receive.

My campaign is to collect enough names on my petition to make a difference and to try and influence the Government to fund the setting up, collection and maintenance of facilities to enable women to have their babies umbilical cords frozen for future use and for free instead of them just being disposed of.

At the moment in this country you have to pay privately to have the cord frozen and stored and it costs a lot of money around £1500.00

The umbilical cords are very important to everyone, you may be ill yourself, have an ill relative or someone you know that needs a bone marrow transplant and an umbilical cord donation could save their life; my life was saved in September 2005 with a bone marrow transplant using a frozen and stored umbilical cord from a baby in Barcelona