A YOUNG Alton mother has put out an urgent appeal for donors who would be willing to give blood to help her baby recover from life-saving surgery.

Fourteen-month-old Luke Butler is currently at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital where he is undergoing treatment as part of a constant battle against a rare genetic condition which attacks his immune system.

He is low on white blood cells and is vulnerable to bacterial infection which tends to manifest itself in the form of abscesses which have to be surgically removed. The low blood count also means that the healing process is severely hampered.

In July Luke underwent an operation at Southampton Hospital to remove a large abscess from the small of his back. The wound was protected by a new type of vacuum dressing designed to aid healing.

Sadly the area has become reinfected and the race is now on to try and find enough donors prepared to give blood to help him through this crisis.

According to his mother, Lisa Butler, the process will require some 20 donors, preferably those already on the donor register. They can be of any blood group but will need to be screened - a process which can be done locally.

Also, some 12 to 24 hours prior to giving blood the donor will be injected with a natural hormone (GCSK) which stimulates the bone marrow to produce more white cells. It also helps to strengthen the cells which don't last long when taken out of the body. This can also be administered locally.

The donors will be required to give blood at University College Hospital in London. The process will take a day.

Meanwhile Luke will be in residence at Great Ormond Street where he will receive a transfusion every other day.

Lisa has a screening questionnaire for would-be donors who have to be aged between 18 and 40, be fit and healthy, have no recent body piercings, tattoos, or injuries, and no significant medical history.

Screening will also rule out those, for example, who have received a transfusion within the last year, travelled to a malarial area, who weigh less than 9.5 stone, who are pregnant, have allergies to foodstuffs or medicines, or who have donated blood within the past three months.

With this in mind it has been more difficult than Lisa and husband, Andrew, thought to find the number of donors required. They have a list of around ten people already who are ready and willing to give blood to help their baby son, but are desperate to add to it.

Luke is not the only member of the family to suffer from the condition. While older sister Lauren (6) is fine, Amy (4) was born with the same condition and has had many operations in her short lifetime but she has not, as yet, found herself in the position of needing a major transfusion to see her through.

She did, however, undergo surgery last week to have some neck abscesses removed - this was the third time since June. "But she seems to get better quite quickly," according to her mother who says that the only thing that would cure the condition completely for both children is a bone marrow transplant.

According to Lisa, the specialists have not been able to give the condition a name. All they can say is that both parents must have some type of recessive gene which has not, to their knowledge, shown itself in the family line before.

"When Amy was born we thought it was a one-off and the likelihood of it happening again was so minimal that we decided to go ahead and have another child, but we knew as soon as he was born that Luke was the same," said Lisa.

The one good thing to come out of having two children with the same problem is that it has led to further in-depth investigation into the condition which, the Butler family have been led to believe, will remain with Luke and Amy for life.

With the pressure on for Luke to begin the transfusion process as quickly as possible, Lisa and Andrew Butler are now desperate to hear from anyone able to help. They can be contacted via the Alton Herald on 01420 82236.