SHARON Bharaj’s rare blood type is set to save the life of a young child with cancer.

Stem cells harvested from her bone marrow are going to be used by an international charity after she was matched with a patient on the waiting list for a transplant.

The 26-year-old of Stratton only discovered she had B negative blood when she when to a Sikh festival four years ago and donated for the first time. She has been doing it every year since.

Then a few weeks ago, she was told by DKMS, which registers donors and patients needing stem cell donations, that she had been matched with a child.

“This is such an easy thing to do. It requires a small amount of your time and could save someone’s life,” she said.

“When you become a mum, it dawns on you just how special a child is and to think they might not make it past the age of five is extremely upsetting.

“I urge everyone to help.”

Harvesting her stem cells will take a few hours and involve a two-day stay in hospital with six weeks of recovery.

And Sharon will have to wait a couple of years to meet the child whose life she hopes she will save.

DKMS, an international non-profit organisation, has only told her the patient is a child, but not the age and not where he or she lives.

More than 8m donors are registered worldwide – 360,000 of them in the UK and patients are registered all over the planet.

But according to the organisation black and Asian people in need of a stem cell or bone marrow transplant only have a 21 per cent chance of finding a perfect donor match.

Account manager Sharon wants to see more Asians on the list of donors.

“The Asian community needs to be more open and welcoming to helping out and giving up a bit of their own time to do something like this.

“There are a lot of taboos around giving blood and the way they conduct themselves, yet its our community which suffers from many illnesses.

She added: “We need to give back and stop being selfish for our own benefit, it only works if both sides are pulling in the same direction.”

Donor recruitment manager Sreeparna Roy said: “Sharon has given a few minutes of her time, doing her cheek swab and handing over the sample to us. She went on to the register and today she is saving a life.

“We actively encourage people to sign up as potential donors.”

One patient on the register was the star of Can’t Pay? We’ll Take it Away, Delroy Anglin, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia. He received a transplant and last month was given the all clear.

Potential donors can find out more and join the register at dkms.org.uk