Lifeline

How we helped sick 10-year-old living in the most toxic town on earth finally gain a..

- JEREMY ARMSTRONG

A SERIOUSLY ill boy aged 10 will get a potentially life-saving transplant nearly 4,000 miles from home thanks to the Mirror.

We teamed up with blood cancer charity DKMS after hearing of the plight of Jasper Makungu, who has sickle cell disease and needs a bone marrow transplant from a donor.

We were told about the sick boy by his dad Jackson, 46, who was digging for scrap lead on a windswept, disused mine dump in Kabwe, Zambia identified as the most toxic town on Earth.

Jackson was scavenging for the metal, which sells for just 68p a bag, to feed his family. He explained his first-born, Jackson jr, was just five when he had died of the condition.

DKMS spoke to their experts in South Africa, Germany and Bangalore, India, about Jasper's case and did tests on his sisters Ruby, five, and Mercy, 16. Both sisters were a match but Mercy was picked due to her age.

CHANCE Now Jasper, Mercy and teacher mum Carol, 41, hope to make a journey from Kabwe to Bangalore for the transplant within weeks.