THE mother of six-year-old Marley Nicholls has made a heartfelt plea to stress time is running out for the youngster to find a perfect match for a bone-marrow transplant and save his life.

Shaney Truman said the family has been given a timeframe of “two or three months” to find the donor.

Marley suffers from a rare blood disorder called aplastic anaemia. If he doesn't receive a bone marrow transplant he will die.

A campaign called Marrow for Marley has seen more than 40,000 people sign up to the bone marrow register through Anthony Nolan or DKMS UK. But a perfect match from any of these, or those already on the worldwide redister, has not yet been found.

His mum also offered an update on a clinical trial he has been taking part in at Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London.

Ms Truman said: “These past few weeks have been really hard. Really, really hard to say the least.

"Since Marley has come home from having the infusions at Great Ormond Street there’s been a lot of changes.

"He’s been so tired as we’ve been travelling to London every week as well as going to our local hospital as well.

"Taking medication has been such a challenge for him.

"He takes these medications every day, he’s had to learn how to swallow tablets and take the liquid in the syringes which don’t taste the best.

"To say he’s my little superstar is such an understatement.

"He’s done so well, he’s shown such bravery and courage for the little age of six.

"He’s on a lot of different medications but one of them has been steroids and today was his final day.

"These are also immunosuppressants and he was put on these to stop and try minimising some side effects of the infusions. There’s been a lot of side effects from these tiny white tablets.

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"He’s put on so much weight, his lovely face is so swollen it hardly looks like him.

"Having to deal with so much at the age of six breaks my heart, I wish I could do it all for him.

"We have been given a time frame now of two to three months to find a match. If Marley doesn’t respond to this treatment at GOSH, we are going to transplant with whatever is on the register and that’s still not even remotely good enough hence us going on the trial.

"I beg you with all my heart if you’re reading this now please exit and go and join because you could save this little soul with his whole future ahead of him.

"I know life is so busy and if it doesn’t affect you personally you may be unlikely to join as you’re not emotionally affected but this is where I ask you all to dig deep in your hearts because there’s an innocent kind loving little boy’s life at stake.

"I try and keep Marley’s story as positive as possible and try and be optimistic, but I will sleep so much better knowing we have a 10/10 match there for him.

"I see so many people getting their matches and I genuinely couldn’t be happier for them but at the same time I want it so bad for Marley too... it breaks my heart there is no one there for him and I feel responsible to find them for him. As his mum I need to find them to save him.

"So please from the bottom of my heart join the register, don’t wait until tomorrow or our next drive do it now because it really could be you."

Numerous swab events have taken part as part of the Marrow for Marley campaign, with the most recent swab organised by the South Wales Argus at Newport Leisure Centre last Saturday. It saw hundreds more people sign up.

If aged between 17 and 30 you can join the register at anthonynolan.org,

If aged 30 to 55, you can do so at dkms.org.uk.

If you live anywhere else in the world, you can join via marrowformarley.com