Carena had previously fought off the illness at Great Ormond Street Hospital spending 11 months in remission. For Carena to survive now she desperately needed a compatible bone marrow donor from an individual amongst the black or mixed race community. Her parents realised how low the number of Black and Mixed parentage people there were on the register and wanted to help increase the numbers to help their daughter and others in desperate need of a donor.

Carena's illness and her desperate need for a donor was hugely published in the press and local news stations. People flocked to a registration session held at her school, Cardinal Pole in Hackney to lend their support and join the register. The campaign continued and many came out in support but unfortunately a match was still unfound.

The doctors at Great Ormond Street told Carena's family that the next step would be for her to undergo a cord blood transplant, but after further investigation it was expressed that a much safer option for Carena would be an Autologous stem cell transplant. With an Autologous stem cell transplant the patients own stem cells are removed or harvested before treatment and then frozen. After they have received high doses of chemo, radiation, or both, the stem cells are thawed and given back to them. There would be no chance of stem cell rejection, as Carena would be receiving her own cells although she has a 50% risk of relapsing and may still need a bone marrow donor in the future.

She is still recovering at Great Ormond Street hospital and bravely smiling though it.

Her parents want to take this opportunity to encourage members of the public to join the register if they haven't done so already or if you are on the register to try and encourage at least one other person to join as a potential bone marrow donor. If everybody did that more and more people like their daughter Carena would be able to get the help they so desperately need.

Less than 22,000 people out of the 383,000 people on The Anthony Nolan register are from the black & mixed parentage community, making it increasingly difficult to locate donors for BME patients suffering with Leukaemia and other bone marrow related illnesses.

Our tissue-types are inherited characteristics passed on from our birth parents and what is used to determine a suitable match for the patient. The closer the match between the patient and the donor the better the chances of survival for the patient. A blood stem cell transplant is much more likely to be successful if the donor is from the same ethnic group as the patient, hence an African Caribbean patient's chance of finding a match are increased if the donor is from the African Caribbean community and so on. However, because of the low number of BME volunteers on the Anthony Nolan register it is that much more difficult to locate suitable donors.

'There are several people out there in the BME community that desperately need to find a matching donor but are struggling to do so because people just aren't coming forward. In order to give children like Carena a better chance of life, I strongly urge you to think about the amazing gift you could be giving to those in need and join the register. Ignorance doesn't save lives - joining the register can.' Vanessa Simpson - Donor recruitment manger for the Black & Mixed race community.

Carena's mother Angela is encouraging members of the local community to come out and register at Carena's School in a couple of weeks. 'I am pleading to all people Black, White, Asian and mixed race. Wherever you're from, please do not wait until this affects someone you love before you do something. Leukaemia can affect anybody. I do not want to loose my little girl and I don't want anybody else to go through what I'm going through. Please think about the valuable gift you could be giving to someone out there - you could save a life'.

We are urging all people but especially those from the black & mixed race community, to register as 'potential' donors to save the life of this beautiful 12 year old girl and the many others desperately in need before it's too late. Every year 7,000 adults & children in the UK are diagnosed with leukaemia or other blood related illnesses. For many of these patients a blood stem cell transplant represents the only possible long-term cure. Without an unrelated donor they may die and many more people are urgently needed. You could give Carena or someone else hope!

The Anthony Nolan trust DESPERATELY needs more donors from the black and mixed race community to save more lives.

If you are between 18 and 40 years old, in good health & weigh at least 8 stone, then please join the Bone Marrow Register. You could be someone's lifesaver. Give a gift of life - JOIN THE ANTHONY NOLAN REGISTER!!

More donors are needed from the Black and Mixed Parentage community. Do something special, give a gift of life & join the Anthony Nolan bone marrow register.

OUT OF MANY WE ARE ONE - Save a life in YOUR community