MORE than 280 people from Gwent have been touched by Emily Clark’s plea for bone marrow donors after The South Wales Argus highlighted her story.

Cwmbran’s Emily Clark, 17, is urging people to sign up as bone marrow donors as she searches for a life-saving match after being told last week her cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, had returned.

One charity that is registering people to the donors list is Delete Blood Cancer.

Since it launched in the UK in February 2013, with the key mission to increase the pool of life-saving blood stem cell donors, until November 17 this year, it had 278 people sign up as donors in the NP postcode.

But since Emily’s blog post about her search for a hero donor on November 17, the charity says 311 people from the NP postcode have registered — with 120 people signing up since The South Wales Argus highlighted her plea.

Anthony Nolan, the UK’s blood cancer charity, has reported an increase of visitors to its website.

The South Wales Argus article ran on November 24, with 163 successful applications from Gwent people since then.

A spokeswoman for Delete Blood Cancer said: “Emily’s appeal has seen a massive rise in people from Gwent registering with us to go on standby to save a life.

“However, there still aren’t enough people on the registry to find a matching donor for all those in need of a donation, so I urge more people to register to save a life.”

Emily’s mum Donna Dunn said that her daughter remains positive and was happy to be home yesterday.

Despite suffering tiredness and sickness from chemotherapy treatment, she found the energy to visit Torfaen Music Centre Gospel Choir on Tuesday evening after leaving the University Hospital of Wales to thank them for their messages of support. Emily is on day six of her chemotherapy treatment and is due to go to hospital today for a check up.

Ms Dunn said: “She has two courses of chemotherapy and that takes us up to December 30, but we have no plan for what happens after.

“We all hope that there is a match for her and we can start planning for that.

“Emily is so thankful to all those who have signed up and our priority is to keep searching.”

Emily, from Llantarnam, has campaigned for people to sign up as bone marrow donors and set up a charity for sufferers of non-Hodgkin (Burkitts) lymphoma before she needed the transplant herself.

The Croesyceiliog Comprehensive pupil is urging potential donors to sign up to increase the chances of there being a match for her and the other 1,800 people who need a transplant this year in the UK.

People can join by filling out an online form.

Nearly 90 per cent of people donate their stem cells through a process similar to giving blood.

The other 10 per cent donate through bone marrow, where they give cells from the bone marrow in their pelvis under general anaesthetic.

To help Emily, if you are aged between 16 and 30, you can join the Anthony Nolan bone marrow register at anthonynolan.org and please tick Emily’s campaign Remission Possible as a reason.

If you are aged between 17 and 55, you can join the Delete Blood Cancer bone marrow register at deleteblood cancer.org.uk