A DESPERATE mum has urged people to register to give blood and bone marrow after her daughter was diagnosed with a rare illness.

Karen Dellar, of Howard Close in Braintree, first took her daughter Hannah-Lee to Colchester Hospital when she was four after she noticed her getting tired quickly, becoming very pale, bruising for no reason and being violently sick.

Doctors initially thought Hannah-Lee, ten, had a food allergy and tried experimenting with different foods, but there was no change and at one point they even suggested it was a psychological illness.

Hannah-Lee, ten, suffers from aplastic anaemia, a rare and potentially life-threatening condition with between five and ten cases in every million people.

It means that her bone marrow fails to produce enough blood cells to keep her healthy.

Miss Dellar said: "At one point doctors think she caught a virus and I probably would have had it too. My antibodies fought it off but hers couldn't.

"I knew there was something wrong and we kept going back for tests until they said she had five per cent of her bone marrow left. A year before she had 45 per cent.

"At the moment doctors don't know what treatment to give her.

"I want to get people to realise that the likes of Hannah need blood.

"People that give blood can ask to go on the bone marrow register or you can get in touch with the Anthony Nolan charity."

Hannah-Lee has now had five blood transfusions, one every five weeks, and doctors have said they only want her to have as many as ten before they find a permanent treatment as her illness gets worse.

She has two options available for treatment; find a bone marrow transplant or treat her with horse ATG, an infusion of horse-derived antibodies against human cells.

Miss Dellar described what happened when Hannah-Lee gets sick. She said: "Hannah-Lee gets headaches, goes very pale, needs to sit down and looks wiped out.

"If her temperature gets up to 38 degrees we have one hour to get her to Colchester Hospital and they have to do blood tests and get the right kind of antibiotics in her.

"For ten months I taught her at home because when we moved to Braintree we needed the closest school to us in case she needs to go to the hospital but they couldn't give us that.

"She's only just a bit behind so they push her but she does struggle and they have put so much pressure on her for the SATs exams."

If a bone marrow match is found, Hannah-Lee will be treated at either Great Ormond Street, in London, or Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge, depending on if doctors choose to use the ATG treatment or the bone marrow.

If you’re between 16 and 30 and in good health you can sign up to the Anthony Nolan register, which you’ll stay on it until you turn 60. You will be sent a spit kit in the post so that you can give a saliva sample.

For more information visit anthonynolan.org