The BBC's north of England correspondent John Thorne reports on Carol Maddocks' battle to help her sick daughter, and others like her.

It was in May last year that Carol and Dean Maddocks first noticed that their eight year old daughter Alice's body was covered in bruises.

The doctors did blood tests, and then the family was given the sledgehammer news.

Alice had a rare bone marrow disorder known as severe aplastic anaemia, which could only be cured with a perfect-match bone marrow transplant.

Carol Maddocks angrily upbraided Mr Blair

On Tuesday Carol and Dean, from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, travel to Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister Tony Blair.

They will argue for a greater government commitment to the search for those vital bone marrow donors who might provide the answer for patients like their daughter.

It is all the result of a challenging encounter on a pre-election Question Time programme on BBC television.

Carol Maddocks, a social services worker, angrily upbraided Mr Blair, insisting that his promise of a better NHS was not good enough.

She demanded a commitment to improve and better fund the bone marrow register.

Mrs Maddocks' intervention made front page news.

It also boosted her campaign to highlight the need for more blood donors as well as possible bone marrow recruits.

The couple believe the National Blood Service does not sufficiently promote the bone marrow register, which Mrs Maddocks has described as the best-kept secret in the National Blood Service.

But she said she would be asking Mr Blair to change that.

"We want the bone marrow register to have a fixed, direct budget," she said, "not to rely heavily on charity.

"There is a shortage of bone marrow donors in this country, and that's down to a lack of funds and organisation."

School clinic

The Maddocks have also questioned the blood service's ruling that people cannot become bone marrow donors on their first visit.

Mrs Maddocks has said: "We all know how to become a blood donor but people aren't aware of the registration process for bone marrow donation."

At Alice's school, Hanging Heaton Infant and Junior, her teachers and friends organised a special donor registry session.

In an unprecedented move, the National Blood Service agreed to lift normal registration restrictions.

Blood from donors who were not already on the bone marrow registry was tested for suitability, avoiding the normal four to five-month waiting period.

Her schoolmates know all about Alice's illness and sympathise when the strain leaves their friend out of sorts.

But Alice is a determined campaigner like her parents.

Alice met Prince Charles when he visited St James' hospital in Leeds where she receives much of her treatment and weekly blood transfusions.

She told him she wanted to be a nurse when she grew up - but that she needed to get better first.