After being successfully transplanted the bone marrow from a Taiwan donor, a  7-year-old leukaemia-suffering girl was saved in Harbin capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

Seeing 210 cubic centimetres of bone marrow dripping into her daughter's thin body, Zhang Xiaofen could not help bursting into tears of joy.

"I cannot thank Wang from Taiwan enough, this man I had never met before," said Zhang, overcome with emotion. "It is his selfless donation that gives my girl a second life."

Sun Bingcheng, the primary student who received the life-saving marrow, was diagnosed with acute leukaemia in March causing her to urgently need a matching bone marrow transplant.

After failing to find a matching bone marrow in Zhonghua Marrow Bank, the largest marrow data base in the Chinese mainland, Sun's doctor at Heilongjiang Blood Disease and Tumour Hospital appealed to Tzu Chi Taiwan Marrow Donor Registry (TCTMDR), which boasts nearly 280,000 registrants.

In April, marrow from a 36-year-old man surnamed Wang from Taiwan was finally found to be a match.

Wang donated his bone marrow on five consecutive days starting August 30.

According to Ma Jun, director of the hospital, Sun is the first leukaemia patient in Northeast China to receive a marrow donation from Taiwan.

"We have sent 300 blood samples for matching to TCTMDR, but only three are found to match," Ma said.

However, in the first two cases, the owners of the matching marrow refused to donate, so Sun's case is the first successful one.

"With the first successful cooperation, I am sure there will be more in the future a good thing for patients in Northeast China," he said.

Due to Typhoon Talim, the final marrow donation procedure on Saturday was forced to relocate to a hospital in the southern part of the island.

Despite the vicious typhoon that had paralyzed the railway transportation of Taiwan at the time, TCTMDR volunteers rushed the bone marrow to the airport of Kaohsiung.

After a flight connection in Hong Kong, it arrived in Harbin at 11:40 pm.

At 2:05 am on Sunday, the life-saving bone marrow was transplanted into Sun Bingcheng's body.

"My heart fell into deep anguish every time when my daughter asked me, 'Why do I have to live in the hospital but not home?'" said Zhang, Sun Bingcheng's mother. "And now I can tell her that we will soon be home."

Zhang Bolong, who is in charge of Sun's treatment, told China Daily that Sun is doing fine but needs to be kept under observation for another two weeks in case rejection of the donated marrow occurs.

(China Daily September 6, 2005)