COUNTLESS lives across the world could be saved by an Oxfordshire familys appeal to find a bone marrow donor for their little boy.

Two-year-old Alastair Ally Kim has Chronic Granulomatous Disorder (CGD), a life-threatening condition.

He has now become the fourth person in the world to start an experimental gene therapy course at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

In the meantime, his parents have spearheaded 200 international donor drives to find their son a match, signing up 7,000 would-be donors in the process - some of whom have since been matched with other patients.

Father Andrew Kim, 37, of Hinton Waldrist near Longworth, said: We want to use whatever momentum Allys story has to help someone else. We know that matches have come through our drives for other people. Its awesome that someone will benefit from all this.

On Thursday, May 25 family friend Cathy Oliveira organised a drive at the Oxford Universitys Old Road research building, signing up 80 staff members in a day.

Ms Oliveira said: When everything happened with Ally I wanted to show support in any way we could; this is directly beneficial not just for Ally but for others.

Allys CGD means his immune system is compromised and the tiniest infection could leave him seriously ill.

His only chance of a permanent cure is a bone marrow stem cell donation, with a match likely to be of Korean or East Asian origin.

In April the youngster and mum Judy Kim, 36, an Oxford University researcher, travelled to London for him to begin a pioneering new gene therapy treatment.

After a week of chemotherapy to wipe out Allys immune system, cells taken from him are modified in a lab and re-introduced to correct the disorder.

Mr Kim said: Bone marrow would give him back 100 per cent functionality and gene therapy is 10 to 15 per cent; its enough to live in the real world, and not be scared he will die every time he gets an infection.

It has been a roller-coaster of a year, but theres nothing to do but move forward. We are really excited at the thought of him being able to come home this summer.

Blood cancer charity DKMS supported last weeks donor drive in Oxford.

Senior donor recruitment manager Joe Hallet said: Around 30 per cent of patients in need of a blood stem cell donor will find a matching donor within their own family.

The remaining 70 per cent, like Ally, will need to find an unrelated donor to have a second chance of life, so events like these are crucial.

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