A BIG-HEARTED mother is spearheading a campaign to get people in West Devon signed up to the stem cell donor register, after following the story of a little girl who lost her battle with Leukaemia.

After seeing the story of 17-month-old Margot Martini while browsing through Facebook and following the journey of her struggle with the disease, a bone marrow transplant which ended up failing and resulting in her unfortunate death in October, Lucy Clark, who herself has a young daughter, has organised a donor registration event later this month to help more people find a match and to enable more lives to be saved.

Lucy, of Callington, said: 'I saw a friend had liked a page on Facebook with a picture of a beautiful little girl back in June, so I clicked on it and read about Margot's story. There was more hope for her back then, she had just had a bone marrow transplant and from then on I followed her story. Sadly, Margot died in October because the transplant failed.

'I've got a 16-month old daughter and I look at her and think what a horrible journey Margot's family have been on — they never expected to be in that position, no-one does.'

Lucy has since been wanting to do something to help and has organised a Team Margot donor registration event on January 31 at St Andrews Church, Royal Parade, Plymouth.

'At any one time there are 37,000 people in the UK needing a stem cell transplant and only half of them ever get matched,' said Lucy. 'In the UK less than one and a half percent of people are registered as donors — it's a shocking statistic.'

At the event, all people will need to do is register their details then have their cheek swabbed. Delete Blood Cancer UK will then place the information on the stem cell register.

Lucy said there was a one in 500 chance of being found as a match. Margot's family have set up the Team Margot Foundation, which is aiming to raise the 1.5% of registered donors (less than a million people), to 4% (around 2.5-million).

She said: 'The Team Margot mission is no mean feat. People can register online and get sent a kit or they can come along to an event like ours. It has the potential to save a life. For me, I see little Margot's face and I think how can you not want to help?'

The event will also have a raffle and other fundraising activities taking place, with all proceeds going to Delete Blood Cancer UK. Lucy said it costs £40 to swab someone and put them on the donor register, which is paid for by the charity. If a match is found, the charity will also pay all the expenses of the donor and a companion while undergoing the procedure.

Caroline Portlock, of Delete Blood Cancer UK, said: 'Many blood cancer patients can only survive if, somewhere in the world, someone with the same tissue characteristics in their blood is willing to donate some stem cells — sometimes called bone marrow because they originate and are formed in our bone marrow.

'That is why every single new donor counts, since it is very rare that two people have almost identical tissue types. The more people that sign up to join the register, the more people can be matched together and the more lives can be saved.'

Lucy added: 'While Margot is sadly no longer with us and the search is over for her, for some families the search is still happening and this is my motivation.'

The event will take place from 10.30am to 4pm. For more information visit http://www.facebook.com/plymouthswabforteammargot">www.facebook.com/plymouthswabforteammargot, http://www.teammargot.com">www.teammargot.com or visit http://www.deleteblodd">www.deleteblodd cancer.org.uk to request a swab kit.