THE family of little leukaemia victim Molly-Ann Barnett have been given new hope with the news that potential donor has been found for a life-saving bone marrow transplant.

The hospital where she has been cared for said it meant they would carry out the transplant next month (Sept).

A massive campaign to find a donor for the six-year-old has led to over 5,000 people across the country coming forward to give blood for testing.

The effort has been co-ordinated by staff at Pocklington firm VMS, which is partly owned by Molly-Ann's father Paul.

The little girl has a rare tissue type with an estimated one in 90,000 chance of finding a perfect match.

But one of the campaign organisers said the Barnetts had received a transatlantic message of hope, with news that two potential donors had been found in America.

Molly-Ann, who is suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia and has been treated in St James's Hospital, Leeds, needs to have a transplant next month (Sept) because her body is unable to stand repeated chemotherapy sessions.

A spokeswoman for the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: "The parents of Molly-Ann Barnett have been informed that a fully-matched potential bone marrow donor has now been identified for their daughter.

"Staff at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will be proceeding with a bone marrow transplant operation to be carried out next month.

"Paul and Mandy Barnett said they would like to express their appreciation to everyone who has come forward to register as bone marrow donors.

"Following the operation, Molly-Ann will be recovering in a sterile, isolated room in the Bone Marrow Unit at St James's University Hospital for up to eight weeks."

Laura Curran of VMS said two potential matches had been found in america, but it would take about four weeks to check they were a perfect match.

The news had given hope to Molly-Ann's parents Paul and Mandy, but they were trying not to raise those hopes too high. "There is light at the end of the tunnel, but it's a very dim light at the moment," she said.

"We are all crossing our fingers and toes to hope that this further testing does show a perfect match," Laura added.