A mum who may not live to see her children start school if she loses her battle with cancer is urging people to join a national bone marrow database.

Caroline Bicheno was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in October 2006 when her daughter Erin was born. After eight months of chemotherapy she went into remission but, sadly, in October found the cancer had returned.

“I now have recurrent Hodgkin’s lymphoma and have been having chemotherapy again with little success,” said 32-year-old Caroline, who also has a four-year-old son called Joel.

The brave mother, who lives on the Elvetham Heath estate in Fleet, now needs a donor bone marrow transplant.

“I ignorantly expected there to be a donor for me but it is not that simple,” she said. “Matching is performed by tissue type not blood group, so it is very difficult to find a match.

“Approximately 16,000 people worldwide currently need a donor to save their lives, me included.

“I have never thought for one minute I would not see my children on their first day of school, but without a transplant that is a prospect I will have to face.

“The Anthony Nolan Trust is searching the databases for a match for me but due to a need for a perfect match and a serious lack of donors there just might not be one.

“Please, please, please spare five minutes and look at the Anthony Nolan Trust website and consider going on the register to save a life. It just takes a blood test to go on the register. You would be contacted later if you were a match for someone.”

Visit www.anthonynolan.org.uk.