As a young girl endures an agonising wait for a life-saving transplant match, an estate agent moved by her story is using her contacts to encourage more people to join the donor register.

In October last year, Geraint Lloyd - a surgeon at Stevenage's Lister Hospital - appealed for more people to join the donor register in a desperate bid to find a match for his 11-year-old daughter, Arya, who was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia in July.

Aplastic anaemia is a blood disorder which causes the body to stop producing new blood cells needed to carry oxygen, prevent infection and stop bleeding.

Arya needs a blood stem cell transplant to save her life, but nobody in her family is a match.

While Geraint's October appeal in the Comet was shared widely on Facebook and led many people to join the donor register, a suitable match has still not been found.

Tracy Kosmalski, director of Putterills in Stevenage Old Town, said she "cannot get Arya out of [her] head" since reading the appeal.

She said: "I saw the photograph of this beautiful girl and read her story. It hit me hard because I have had two daughters of my own, and now have two grandsons and three granddaughters. I thought, my goodness this could be one of ours."

Keen to help, and already signed up to the Anthony Nolan donor register, Tracy has decided to use Putterills' database of some 26,000 people to help spread the appeal further, including putting it in their newsletter and on their social media pages.

She said: "The parents must be beside themselves in trying to help Arya, and so dependent on the public coming forward.

"The more people we can reach the more chance of that one person being ‘the one’.

"I remember years ago listening to an appeal on the radio by a mother for a bone marrow transplant for her son. She said ‘it could be you who could save my son’, so please register. I felt as though she was talking directly to me so I did just that, the very same day. I joined the Anthony Nolan donor register."

Geraint said: "It would be great if Tracy can put an appeal on their database. It would help a lot and we would be really grateful."

To join the Anthony Nolan stem cell donor register visit anthonynolan.org