Stranger gave me back my life and I can't thank him enough

Ten-year-old Jamie Zammit was diagnosed with a genetic disease that hampers bone growth and affects only one in 6.5million people in Britain.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital sent out a worldwide alert for a donor who would match Jamie's bone marrow and his mother gave birth to a "saviour" sister in the hope that she could help him.

But by September no one had come forward and doctors said the new baby's bone marrow did not match.

Jamie's parents were told the Fanconi Anaemia condition could develop into leukaemia by New Year if no donor was found.

Then a middle-aged man walked into a clinic in Spain in October and medics discovered his marrow was a 95 per cent match. Jamie underwent a transplant at Great Ormond Street and was allowed home for Christmas.

Jamie wants to start secondary school in September, but must wait six months before he can see his friends because of the risk of infection.

He told the Standard: "I am eternally grateful the donor came forward and gave me my life back.

"To be given a second chance is fantastic and we cannot thank him enough. I haven't been at school for a few months and am now on medication for the next six months and have to stay at home. But I will be starting secondary school in September and am excited about having a normal life again."

Jamie's mother, Donna, said staff at Great Ormond Street and the Princes Royal University Hospital in Kent had become a "second family".

Mrs Zammit, 36, who has five children, said: "We know all the staff so well they have become our close friends and have been really supportive in all the difficult times.

"Jamie's transplant was a high-risk operation so we were so worried about the outcome but the doctors were cheerful and kept us going."

The schoolboy, from Orpington, was diagnosed with the condition in April 2005.

He endured years of hospital trips for blood transfusions and chemotherapy and Mrs Zammit and her husband had a fifth child, daughter Donatella, in the hope that she could provide a transplant. Jamie's three brothers' bone marrow did not match.

There was a one in four chance the baby would be a match, but Mrs Zammit said: "I felt such a failure when I found out. I'd been so hopeful and quietly optimistic."

She added: "Jamie was staring death in the face for so long, that when the doctors said the transplant was successful we were stunned."

Three days after the operation, as he recovered in the transplant unit, Jamie was struck with an E.coli infection in his blood.

"It was a very serious time for us all but the doctors were positive and kept us all going," said Mrs Zammit.