We are urging our readers to attend today’s South Wales Argus and Marrow for Marley swab event at Riverside Suite, Newport Leisure Centre between 10am and 4pm.

NINE months ago Marley Nicholls’ family were given the worst possible news.

Their young son, aged six, was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder, aplastic anaemia.

What followed was an emotional roller-coaster as they learned that his only hope was to undergo a bone marrow transplant.

Early hopes that his younger brother, four-year-old George would be a match, were shattered when tests ruled out that possibility.

Marley was given approximately two years to live if he did not have a transplant - but the timescale has since become even more acute.

So a group of parents of pupils at Marley’s school, St Julian’s Primary, Newport, took it upon themselves to set up the Marrow for Marley campaign to search for a donor.

And they have been absolutely tireless and gained world-wide support.

We first reported their campaign one month later, as Marley’s mum Shaney Truman told us: “Time is of the essence and finding a donor is the only thing that is going to give him a future.

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

In the month that followed 3,000 people signed up to the donor register as part of the #marrowformarley campaign.

August 19 saw a swab test event in St Julian’s attract hundreds of people, all there to be tested to see if they could be Marley’s donor, but still a match was not found.

Marley’s dad Joe Nicholls said at the event: “It is not just important for me and my family but for the thousands of children out there who need help.

“The more people who sign up the greater the chance a match will be found for Marley.

“There are so many people out there who need a transplant. We need more donors.”

The campaign group though just kept on pushing and pushing, using social media as a huge driving force to get out their message.

By September 20,000 potential donors had joined the register and just days later, the hunt went global as DKMS, an international blood cancer charity with millions of donors registered, joined the search.

There were countless swab events across Gwent and support has flooded in from across the globe.

Hollywood A-listers including Michael Sheen and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Welsh rugby international Gareth Davies and West End star Sophie Evans, have all helped raise awareness of the campaign.

And all the while Marley has had to undergo several blood transfusions including one on October 17, when a consultant at the University of Hospital, Wales, told his parents that the young boy has a rare Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) type.

Ms Truman said: “His bone marrow just isn’t working on a level he needs to survive anymore.

“But he can’t survive on blood transfusions alone, because they can’t replace the cells that fight infections. He’s basically living without an immune system at the moment.”

Little Marley underwent his fifth blood transfusion in January this year and in the same month, the case was raised in the Welsh Assembly by Newport West AM Jayne Bryant.

A swab event at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on the day of the Wales v England clash in the Six Nations saw another 500 people join the register.

But despite all of this a match has yet to be found.

And now time really is of the essence. Yesterday the Marrow for Marley campaign tweeted that they now have just three months to find a suitable donor.

Marley is currently part of a clinical trial of immunosuppressant therapy at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London in the hope that this will gain him more time while the hunt for a donor continues.

All of this is why we urge you to pop into the Newport Centre today if you are aged 16 to 55, anytime between 10am and 4pm to take what is a simple, quick and painless test to see if you could be the one to create Marley’s miracle.