Bale And Rowling Back Woman's Donor Appeal

An online campaign to save the life of a 24-year-old with blood cancer has attracted global attention and led to a significant rise in bone marrow donors.

Lara Casalotti - who has leukaemia - has received support on social media from some of the most famous people in the world, including Harry Potter author JK Rowling, footballer Gareth Bale, actor Mark Wahlberg and photographer Mario Testino.

None of the 26 million people on bone marrow registers around the world are a match for Lara, who is of Thai and Italian heritage.

Asked how she felt about the backing she has received on sites like Twitter and Facebook, she told Sky News: "It has all been so heartening.

"And getting messages from people I don't even know, saying they have seen the campaign and they have gone to sign up is really wonderful and all the support just makes this whole process a lot easier really."

Those with caucasian heritage have a 60% chance of finding a suitable donor but those of mixed-ethnicity only have a 20% chance.

That is partly because of a lack of mixed-race people on international registers but also because it is less likely that a willing donor shares the specific combination of a mixed-race patient's ethnicities.

Lara said: "It was my family that looked into it really and found out that only 3% on the worldwide registers are of mixed-race origin which makes it much harder to find a match.

"And then after having the results of my specific genetics, we found that two specific HLA (human leukocyte antigen) markers are quite rare. So that's why they kick-started this campaign."

The UCL student was one year into an MSc in global migration when she started to notice symptoms.

"It was all a bit of a shock really because I had symptoms like leg pain, I was feeling more unfit than usual but I put it down to other things," she said.

"So to hear that it was leukaemia was very shocking. I knew about the possibility of needing a transplant and we were waiting to find out for a while whether my brother would be a possible donor but unfortunately he is not and that's why I'm waiting for a donor, who will be a stranger."

The campaign to find a match for Lara has been running for just over a fortnight and in that time 8,500 people in Britain have registered to be a potential bone marrow donor.

Significantly, half of those people are from ethnic minorities or mixed race backgrounds.

Henny Braund from the Anthony Nolan blood cancer charity said: "To get the best possible match you need to be from the same or similar ethnic backgrounds.

"So if you are from a mixed-race - like Lara who is half Thai, half Italian - you need to find someone with a similar background and that's just incredibly difficult.

"We know that if you are from a mixed-race background you are only going to have a one in five chance of finding that best possible match."

This weekend Lara has started another round of chemotherapy and doctors say she needs a bone marrow donor by April.

If in good health, men and women between the ages of 16 and 30 can sign up to the register by providing a saliva sample.

Nine in 10 people who end up becoming a donor usually donate their stem cells, not their bone marrow. The charity says it is "a simple, painless process - very similar to giving blood".

One in 10 will have their stem cells collected via the bone marrow itself, while under general anaesthetic.

You can find more information and sign up to the register here .