Cornwall teenager receives bone marrow transplant

Charlie Dugdale is recovering after receiving a bone marrow transplant

A teenager with a rare blood disorder is recovering in hospital after receiving a bone marrow transplant.

Charlie Dugdale, 17, from Liskeard in Cornwall has aplastic anaemia - a condition where the bone marrow and stem cells do not produce enough blood cells.

His friends and family organised pop-up testing facilities to see if they could find a match for him.

But Charlie's donor was later found in Germany.

"I love him, I know he is 29 years old and he is already part of our family even if he doesn't realise he is yet," Charlie's mum, Danielle Dugdale, said about the donor.

"He doesn't know anything about us but he has saved our son's life, I don't know how a stranger can do that but he has."

Pop-up events were held by Charlie's family and friends to invite people to swab and become part of the stem cell register

Ms Dugdale hopes her son's story and the pop-up events will encourage people to join the stem cell register.

She said: "We wanted people to join the stem cell register, in our country it's a voluntary thing and there's not enough people on there.

"All the turn outs have been amazing, we have had them locally and friends do them in the Midlands."

Ms Dugdale said the pop-up's were continuing to "encourage people... to join the stem cell register".

Charlie's family hope he will be well enough to return home for his 18th birthday in April

Sarah Rogers, from the Anthony Nolan stem cell charity, said it was hard to find matches for those in need.

"For the majority of people who join the register, they won't ever be a match, because statistically the chances are small, but for those who are a match they are asked to donate to a patient in need, they are literally potentially saving somebody's life," she said.

• Listen: What's it like to be a stem cell donor?

Charlie is recovering in isolation at Plymouth's Derriford hospital, where he is being monitored for any signs that transplanted cells are being rejected.

The family said they hoped he would be home in time for his 18th birthday in April.