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From: Hull Daily Mail
Date: 01/10/02
Time: 20:24:01
Remote Name: 212.50.180.248
'I JUST WANT TO SAY THANK YOU'
09:30 - 01 October 2002
Full of irrepressible good humour, laughing and joking, it is difficult to believe that just two years ago Molly-Ann Barnett's life hung in the balance.
And now she and her family are planning to say a great big thank you to the woman who gave Molly a future - face to face.
Eight-year-old Molly-Ann, from Hessle, is this week celebrating the second anniversary of her life-saving bone marrow transplant operation.
And her mother Mandy has set the wheels in motion to trace the American woman who made it all possible.
Rules safeguarding the identity of donors and recipients prevented the Barnetts from learning who the bone marrow donor was.
Now they are writing to the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust to ask for her name and contact details, and to suggest a meeting.
It comes after the Barnetts finally received a letter from the unidentified woman - one-and-a-half years after it was posted.
The message, signed only "your friend", dropped on to their doormat after being stuck in the worldwide postal system since May last year.
Mrs Barnett said: "It was a lovely, handwritten letter. It was wonderful to read.
"I would love to be able to meet her to thank her personally for what's she's done for Molly and our family."
The Barnetts wrote to the mystery donor via the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust soon after Molly-Ann's operation.
But, until now, all they have known about this special person was that she lives in America.
In her letter, the woman says she hopes they can one day meet.
She writes: "I was excited to receive your letter and even more excited to hear your daughter was doing well.
"I think about her all the time and wonder how she is doing, and what she looks like."
Molly-Ann said: "I was really excited when I got the letter. I just want to say 'thank you' lots of times."
Molly-Ann beat odds of 90,000-to-one in finding a suitable donor.
Thousands of Mail readers volunteered for testing after we launched our Gift of Life campaign for would-be donors to come forward.
Molly-Ann received the transplant at a time when she was seriously ill and very weak from the combined effects of the illness and the extensive chemotherapy she had endured.
She celebrated her two-year milestone on Sunday with a sailing trip around the sunny coast of Felixstowe where the family opened a bottle of champagne.
"The anniversary of Molly's transplant is like a second birthday," said Mrs Barnett.
Meanwhile, doctors at St James Hospital in Leeds are so pleased with Molly-Ann's progress that she only needs a check up every three months.
Mrs Barnett added: "She's doing really well. Sometimes it's as though it never happened. She's just put it all behind her now."