A BONE-MARROW match has been found for a seriously ill boy who inspired hundreds of people to register as donors.

Only three months after he was diagnosed with a genetic condition that requires a bone marrow transplant, a donor has been found for four-year-old Riley Mulvany.

Some patients wait years for a match, but the news that a donor has been found for Riley came only a week after 218 people signed up as potential donors in his home town of Darlington.

A transplant is Riley's only hope of being cured of chronic granulomatous disorder, a condition that affects the body's ability to fight disease. Without the treatment, the youngster faces a life in and out of hospital.

The transplant will involve a gruelling treatment for Riley, who will have to undergo a ten-day course of chemotherapy that will leave him with no immune system.

He will then be isolated in hospital until the transplant, before spending a further two months in hospital recovering. He will have to avoid crowds for six months after his treatment.

Riley has been waiting for a matching donor since he was diagnosed with the condition in March.

As none of his relatives were a match, he had to rely on the Anthony Nolan Trust's bone marrow register for a donor.

The family approached The Northern Echo in the hope a donor could be found and, after we highlighted Riley's plight, hundreds of people stepped forward to help.

Last night, Riley's mother, Aimee Watson, 23, told The Northern Echo that she was absolutely ecstatic a donor had been found.

She said: "They just phoned and said, 'we've got a match for Riley'.

"It was unbelievable. I was absolutely ecstatic. It is the best news I've ever had.

"The treatment is not going to be nice but, at the end of it, he'll be fine.

"I am looking forward to it, but at the same time, I am not."

The family will probably never know the identity of the donor, but plan to write to him or her through the Anthony Nolan Trust to give their thanks.

The youngster was diagnosed after his mother and father, Paul Mulvany, 25, found three lumps on his neck.

He had to endure three operations at Newcastle General Hospital and was in hospital for 12 weeks after his diagnosis, where his weight plummeted to two stone.

His mother said the family was amazed by how quickly a match had been found.

She said: "There was a little girl who waited five years before she got hers, so he has been really lucky.

"When we were at the hospital, we used to walk past the transplant ward and Riley used to say, 'This is where I'm going for my new blood'."

She said Riley, who was allowed home last month and had put on weight, but was still receiving treatment to keep him free of infections.

She said: "He's really well now. He has medicine five times a day and injections three times a week. This is the healthiest he has ever looked since he was born."

Miss Watson thanked the people who joined the register and the Anthony Nolan Trust.

Nigel Gorvett, of the Anthony Nolan Trust, said: "It is fantastic a match has been found for Riley.

"That is the whole purpose of getting people to join the bone marrow register - so we can find potentially life-changing donor matches for people who desperately need them."

To find out about registering as a bone marrow donor, call the Anthony Nolan Trust on 0207-284-1234 or visit www.anthony nolan.org.uk