KIND-HEARTED residents attended a bone marrow donation session at the weekend in the hope of saving the life of a four-year-old boy.

Luka Stroh, of East Sheen, has leukaemia and desperately needs a stem cell transplant to beat the disease.

On Saturday, a session was held to try and find a donor as neither his parents or his three siblings are matches. Between 10am and 2pm, 172 new potential donors attended The German School, in Petersham Road, to give a saliva sample.

Luka's parents, Stefanie and Karsten, will now have to wait up to eight weeks before they know if a match has been found.

Luka was diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma, a type of cancer in 2009. He developed acute myeloid leukaemia as a result of the year-long intensive chemotherapy he was given to treat sarcoma. Doctors say he now needs a stem cell transplant to beat the leukaemia.

The event was set up by Luka's family and leukaemia charity Anthony Nolan Trust. However, the odds of a match being found at the session are still very small, so both the family and the charity are urging people to register themselves online.

Anyone interested in registering can visit www.anthonynolan.org or call 0303 303 0303.