A LITTLE girl still waiting for a life-saving transplant operation is spearheading a national campaign to find bone marrow donors for other leukaemia sufferers.

Five-year-old Elizabeth Morris, who has been fighting the cancer since she was a baby, is in desperate need of a donor after an operation set for New Year's Day fell through at the last minute.

Last week, Elizabeth became the face of a major "Gift Of Life" campaign to find donors to join the British Bone Marrow Register.

Elizabeth, of Hollow Meadow, Ringley, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 1997 at just 17 months old.

She has only 12 months of chemotherapy treatment left.

Sadly, her younger sister Rachel is not a match and her mother Janet warned: "It is now a race against time."

The upheaval in searching for a suitable donor has meant Elizabeth has left St Saviours CE Primary School in Ringley.

Janet said: "It has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions. It was so hard to keep telling the teachers and pupils that Beth was going to have a transplant, only for it all to fall through.

"We decided to take her away from school during this traumatic time. But we are looking to the future very positively, and we are hopeful that we may have found a donor, although we are being very cautious this time."

She also refused to rule out the possibility of creating a designer baby to find the perfect match for her daughter.

Janet added: "I will do everything in my power to provide my child with a chance to live. Who knows what could happen in six months' time if we do not find a suitable donor.

"I can't see how anyone can criticise genetic science if it can save the life of a child."

The Gift of Life campaign was launched in Manchester by the National Blood Service and aims to boost the number of bone marrow donors in the North West by 40,000. People giving blood can instantly join the register if they make a request.

Information on how to become a bone marrow donor can be obtained by calling 0845-7711711.