'I knew this trial was her last chance of life' - new hope for children with rare leukaemia after world-first research in Manchester

A mum has told how a pioneering new clinical trial after world-first leukaemia research in Manchester saved her eight-year-old daughter's life.

The research at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital has shown dramatic results for treating children with high-risk leukaemia - a type of blood cancer - who previously had no hope of recovery after all other treatment options had failed, medics revealed today.

And the success of the innovative treatment is all down to the help of newborn babies. Cord blood cells taken from the placenta, along with a series of white blood cell transfusions, provides 'the most effective treatment ever trialled', the researchers said.

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Sarah Marica was just four years old when she was first diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), a rare type of childhood leukaemia which is diagnosed in approximately 100 children and young adults in the UK each year.

After all other treatments failed, including chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, Sarah to the hospital to receive the innovative treatment through the GRANS clinical trial. Now over a year in remission, the team at RMCH and her family say they are hopeful the novel treatment will have cured the leukaemia.

Sarah was one of 10 children to take part in the two-year study, which involved receiving a cord blood stem cell transplant alongside a series of white blood cell transfusions (known as granulocytes) with the aim of boosting the cancer fighting abilities of the new cord blood.

Her mum Simona, 44, a staff nurse in Cornwall, said: "When I heard the doctor first diagnose Sarah with leukaemia I started crying at the word, but even worse, we were told this was a