A FAMILY from South Wales has found itself in the same position as those of Lochgelly's Ava Stark two short years ago.

For many months Ava had to wait to see if there was a donor out there who could give her the bone marrow transplant that would solve the condition she was suffering from and it saw Lochgelly High School pupils join local firefighters getting involved in the bid to find a donor.

There were some false dawns for Ava and her family, but a donor was found, a successful transplant took place and a couple of weeks ago Ava enjoyed her first day at school.

So Ava's mum Marie will have a lot of sympathy for the parents of Marley Nicholls, from Newport, who is patiently seeking a bone marrow donor.

Marley is battling the rare blood condition, aplastic anaemia, which means it’s a race against time to find a matching bone marrow donor for a transplant.

“It was totally out of the blue,” his mum Shaney Truman said about the diagnosis to one of the Times' sister papers, the South Wales Argus.

“I genuinely wouldn’t wish this on anyone. With kids it’s not fair and it is rubbish that this has to be part of his childhood, but we just get on with it.

“It is heartbreaking, but he’s doing really well at the moment.”

Marley’s condition means he needs a bone marrow transplant and without it doctors said he could die in the next two or three years.

“Time is of the essence and finding a donor is the only thing that is going to give him a future,” Ms Truman said. “People asked about raising money but we said that we don’t want people’s money, we want people’s time.

"Time is precious and we want people to register as bone marrow donors.”

The campaign #MarrowforMarley has meant that 3,000 people have signed up to become donors with Anthony Nolan, the charity which matches people willing to donate their blood stem cells or bone marrow to people who need lifesaving transplants, and has also led to a huge increase in blood donations.

“I feel like it’s our job as parents to do everything we possibly can,” Ms Truman said.

“Even if this doesn’t benefit Marley I feel I wouldn’t be doing my job as a mum if I wasn’t doing everything I could.”

Ms Truman is hoping that Marley is able to find a bone marrow donor like Ava did and recovers the same way.