Toddler recovers after transplant

Sorrel Mason was given a 30% chance of survival

A seriously ill two-year-old girl has made a full recovery after scientists found a bone marrow match in Japan.

Sorrel Mason was given a 30% chance of survival after being diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia.

Millions of stem cell samples across the world were checked but the only set of cells bearing a near likeness were from an umbilical cord frozen in Tokyo.

Sorrel, of Great Wratting, Suffolk, underwent a transplant at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children last year.

Sorrel's mother, Samantha Mason, 38, praised the hospital's bone marrow transplant unit as she met the government's chief medical officer, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson.

'Terrifying months'

Sir Liam visited the unit, where Sorrel underwent treatment, as part of a tour of "centres of excellence" to be used in a review of the NHS led by Lord Darzi.

Mrs Mason, who runs a garden centre with her husband Robert, said: "Sorrel would be dead now if she had been left untreated. "They were the most terrifying months our family could live with, but the doctors pulled off a miracle for us.

"I was so frightened of catching an infection I would cross the road when I heard someone cough."

During his tour, Sir Liam congratulated Dr Jackie Cornish, who leads the unit, for her "pioneering work".