A DESPERATE search by two fathers for bone marrow donors for their leukaemia-stricken children led to the establishment of a remarkable appeal which helped save thousands of lives.

Nearly two decades later the charity - which raised millions of pounds towards building a donor registry - achieved its aim and is being wound down as the government has taken over its work.

Today the British Bone Marrow Donor Appeal will hold a farewell event when its patron, Queen guitarist Brian May, will hand over £1 million from its coffers to the blood services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to continue its work in saving the lives of leukaemia victims.

John Humphries, of Newport, and Malcolm Thomas, of Bridgend, founded the BBMDA after discovering it took months to test potential donors.

They came up with the idea of testing blood donors for bone marrow matching and persuaded the blood services to work with them. As donors gave blood, an extra amount was taken for tissue typing and the donor's name was added to a bone marrow registry.

Mr Humphries' son, Mark Humphries, survived leukaemia after substantial chemotherapy treatment, but sadly Malcolm's daughter, Alexandra, died, aged ten, before a donor could be found.

But Alex's legacy is two fully tissue-typed registers of potential donors who are available to save the lives of thousands of victims of leukaemia and other bone marrow diseases.

In 2001 the government agreed to pay £5 million a year towards tissue typing and maintenance. It was what Mr Thomas and Mr Humphries had been hoping for since they first began fundraising.

"After our own experiences we just had to do something to increase the chances of successful donor transplants for all those suffering from this terrible disease," said Mr Humphries.

"We are now able to say 'job done' and wind up the charity. All that remains is to distribute the funds we have left between the three blood services."