A mother-of-four has got pregnant again in the hope her new child could be a bone marrow match for her sick son.
 
Donna Zammit’s nine-year-old boy Jamie has a blood disorder called Fanconi anaemia – a rare genetic disease that can cause bone marrow failure, as well as leukaemia.
 
Mrs Zammit, 35, and her husband Thomas, 33, who live in Bromley, launched a world-wide search for a donor.
 
But they have been unable to find a bone marrow match and have been forced to take matters into their own hands.
 
“We are desperate – we want him well again,” said Mrs Zammit.
 
“I did my own research online and you realise what you are up against hanging on for a donor. This spring I just thought we’ve got to go ahead and do it, take the chance and try for a baby.”
 
She added: “There is a one-in-four chance our baby could be a match for Jamie and if so, she will be a perfect match.”
 
The housewife admitted she had taken a “very big gamble” having another baby because there was a chance they could have the same illness as Jamie.

Thankfully, however, hospital tests have shown the baby is fine. After having four sons doctors have told the Zammits they are having a little girl.
 
Jamie, who is now a full-time pupil at Princes Plain Primary School, has check-ups every three months at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

He has been taking a steroid treatment for more than a year, which has meant he doesn’t have to have blood transfusions.
 
But his mum said: “In the long-term it [the steroid] causes liver tumours. His bones will fuse together so he will only be a certain height, which is on top of the psychological problems.
 
“The longer they are on the steroid the poorer the outcome of the bone marrow transplant because your body is not able to respond as well as it should – we are trapped in a corner.

“We have to hope we will find a donor.”
 
Named after the Swiss paediatrician who first described the disorder, Fanconi anaemia is so rare it affects just one in six and a half million people. There are only 10 families in the UK with a child like Jamie.
 
The baby is due in February.