BBC NEWS | Programmes | Breakfast | Treatment soon for Zain's family

The first steps towards treating little Zain Hashmi could begin by the end of this month, his mother told Breakfast this morning.

Zain's parents won a high court battle last week which will let them undergo IVF treatment, in the hope of creating a brother or sister who will be a perfect tissue match for him.

Zain, who's four, has the inherited condition Beta Thalassemia. He's being treated with blood transfusions, but needs a bone marrow transplant in the long term.

His parents have been unable to find a suitable donor. And last week won a high court battle allowing them to undergo IVF treatment in the hope of having another baby who's a tissue match for him.

Zain's mother Shahana Hashmi joined us live on Breakfast this morning.

She hopes to begin fertility treatment at the end of this month, which means that the family may know, by the beginning of the summer, whether they have a tissue match.

"It's wonderful, fabulous," Shahana told us. "Cards have flown in by the hundreds - we've had people stopping us in the street."

Zain, too, is delighted that his treatment may soon go ahead.

The plan is to create embryos by IVF and screen them for a suitable match.

But any unused embryos will not be destroyed, said Mrs Hashemi:

"If we don't use them, they will be stored at donated to childless couples, " she said.