HOPES of giving a father-of-five suffering from leukaemia a life-saving operation were cruelly dashed just days after his family celebrated finding a bone marrow donor.

David Mills was all set to have the transplant when his half-sister Mandy was found to be a match - but a week later doctors discovered chemotherapy had failed to beat the cancer and they were forced to scrap the operation.

Nothing more can now be done for the 48-year-old, whose youngest child Hayley was born in March, and he is expected to live for less than two months. "It was all going really well," said his wife Nicola, who added doctors had not expected any of his two half-brothers or three half-sisters to be a match.

"It's very hard to accept. But we're trying to keep cheerful for him. If we get upset he gets upset."

The couple have been married for nine years and also have a son, eight-year-old Jason, while Mr Mills has three children from a previous relationship.

He is now back at the family home in Wolverhampton Road, Kidderminster, after repeated stays at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester since last year.

In July the Shuttle/Times & News featured a front page appeal for the public to give blood at the hospital to boost the chances of finding a match for Mr Mills - and almost 40 people answered the call.

And some 43 of his colleagues at Titan Steel Wheels in Cookley also came forward at a separate donor session.

But before the transplant all traces of leukaemia - cancer of the blood - had to be destroyed or else the new bone marrow would also have become cancerous.