A HEADTEACHER whose school broke a national record for the most popular donor registration event, said she would “do anything” to find a match for a pupil who has a rare type of cancer.

Pitmaston Primary School encouraged people to get swabbed this weekend in order to find a tissue match for five-year-old pupil Oscar Saxelby-Lee who has T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Over £3,800 was also raised by the 4,855 in attendance at the Malvern Road school on Saturday and Sunday – as well as people driving past in their cars.

Headteacher Kate Wilcock said: “People were literally stopping on Malvern Road and throwing notes into our buckets and driving off, which is incredible.”

The money will be donated to DKMS, which tests the swabs for viability, while Mrs Wilcock said an extra 1,000 registered online and sent off for test kits.

“We’ve been told over a thousand people have been online at the same time over the weekend [and signed up],” said Mrs Wilcock.

“I’ve been told they [DKMS] never that kind of response, so it must be due to this.”

Parents Olivia Saxelby and Jamie Lee, of McIntyre Road, Worcester, found out Oscar had the rare form of leukaemia on December 28.

Their son has been given just three months to live and is in desperate need of a stem cell transplant.

Mrs Wilcock said: “My dream was to hit 4,000 [donors] but I can be quite unrealistic. I think for us to exceed that was absolutely incredible – we are thrilled.

“The atmosphere over the actual two days was something I’ve never experienced before – there was a buzz feeling, people were all doing so much good.

“Volunteers kept coming forward who weren’t on the list and saying: ‘I can volunteer, how can I help?’

“There was an amazing community spirit on display. The weather was horrible on Sunday but people were just queuing and there was no complaining, everyone had that sense of pulling together.”

Mrs Wilcock said people came from outside of Worcestershire, including Bath and Warwick, while others travelled up from Wales for the day.

“We just want everyone to go online and register,” she continued. “We want the magical moment when they tell us they’ve found a match for somebody.

“I would do anything for it to be for Oscar, but it could help so many people.”

Support for Oscar has spread much further afield with Fil Goedhart, from The Netherlands, just one of those outside the UK hoping to help.

The 25-year-old, from Dronton, is to request a swab kit from charity DKMS which tests the swabs for viability.

Speaking about the drive to save Oscar, Mr Goedhart said: “I was so moved by it that I want to see if I am a viable donor. I hope that I can help.”

DKMS said its record for the highest number of people to take part in a registration event before this one is 2,200 people.

Mrs Wilcock said Worcester Guildhall is hosting another donor registration event on Saturday (March 9) from 10am to 4pm, which already has 30 volunteers signed up.

She said she understands the University of Worcester is hosting a further event, with the date to be confirmed.

If you can’t make it on Saturday, you can get a kit by visiting dkms.org.uk/en/register-now