A SCHOOL has issued an urgent appeal for volunteers to help at an event to search for a stem cell donor for an ill schoolboy.

Oscar Saxelby-Lee, five, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Leukaemia just after Christmas and his parents have been told he desperately needs a stem cell transplant.

To try and help find a match, his school - Pitmaston Primary School - has organised a drop-in registration event with blood cancer charity DKMS.

Thousands of people have taken Oscar’s plight to heart and promised to register as donors but now the school is appealing for volunteers to come forward to help with the registration process, selling refreshments or helping direct people around the school grounds.

Headteacher Kate Wilcock said: “We are still in need of more volunteers for the registration event this weekend at Pitmaston Primary School, to ensure we can have the maximum numbers of the public completing their mouth swab and form as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“Please contact the school office on 01905 423710 if you are available from 8.45 am to 12.30 pm or 12.15 pm to 3 pm on either Saturday, March 2 or Sunday, March 3.

“A huge thank you to all those who are volunteering and donating. Please help us find Oscar a donor.”

We previously reported how Oscar’s parents Olivia Saxelby and Jamie Lee had launched a desperate awareness campaign, called Hand in Hand for Oscar, after doctors at Birmingham Children’s Hospital told them his T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia was too aggressive to be treated with chemotherapy alone.

Mum Olivia told how the couple had found the news ‘heartbreaking’ and added: “Oscar is a fun, loving, energetic five-year-old boy who deserves to live to the full alongside the other troopers fighting such horrific diseases.

“Not only does he need to enjoy a normal life a child should live, he now needs someone else to save him.”

Volunteers have been asked to help at two sessions, either 8.45am-12.30pm or 12.15pm-3pm, on both Saturday, March 2 and Sunday, March 3 at the Malvern Road school.

Anyone who can help should call the school office on 01905 423710.