A woman whose son was saved by a bone marrow transplant has given her backing to a new campaign to encourage more people to register as donors.

Jeanette Wheatley, from Caistor in Lincolnshire, said people are dying because of a shortage of donors.

Ms Wheatley's son Jack was born with the potentially fatal immune system disorder Hyper IGM, which meant that without a bone marrow transplant he would only live for 10 years.

A donor was found within three months and five years later, Jack is an active and healthy eight-year-old.

The campaign aims to raise awareness

Ms Wheatley said she was grateful to the donor: "There's just no way you can thank these people because you don't know the donors.

"To have the gift that he gave to Jack was so selfless.

"He was absolutely brilliant he didn't ask anything he was given the chance to do it and he did it, we just can't thank him enough."

Each year an estimated 3,000 requests are made for transplants, but because of the number of tissue types, only around 200 matches are made with non-relatives.

Helen Shepard from the National Blood Service (NBS) said making a bone marrow donation was a fairly straightfoward process.

She said: "If you were a match you would be asked to come into hospital and have the bone marrow removed.

"It's taken from the hip bone and it can then be transplanted into the patient who needs it.

"It is a more complex operation than just donating blood it involves a stay of about two days in hospital.

"There's absolutely no side effects, perfectly healthy and you have the knowledge there's someone walking around who wouldn't be there if it wasn't for you."

The NBS is hoping its campaign will recruit 40,000 people to join the bone marrow register over the next 12 months.