Linda Wells, an American mother who has been digging deeply in China to find a "gift of life" for her adopted child, has finally seen light at the end of the tunnel.

The ray of hope dawned on Wells at the weekend, as the Tianjin Cord Blood Bank in north China said it had identified a perfect serological match for her ailing daughter Kailee, who needs a stem cell transplant to survive.

"We are preparing documents for Kailee's doctors in the United States to decide when the time is appropriate for transplant," an excited Wells said yesterday in Beijing.

The 50-year-old lawyer from New Mexico is on her second mission to China in search of a suitable blood cell donor for her six-year-old, who was adopted from central China's Hunan Province in 1998, and was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia last year.

Doctors said a transplant of stem cells, either from a bone marrow or umbilical cord blood donor, is Kailee's only hope of survival.

As Red Cross societies throughout China had failed to find a 100 percent match in their ever-expanding bone marrow registry over the past nine months, researchers in Tianjin combed the city's umbilical cord blood bank, finally locating a perfect match on Friday, according to Doctor Yan Fengying.

Yan, deputy chief of the Tianjin establishment, said the bank will send the stem cells as a gift to Wells to help save the life of Kailee.

Wells said: "The Chinese Red Cross Society, the Tianjin bank and all of the volunteers are a shining example to the world that when we join efforts we can accomplish miracles."

Kailee's story has once again highlighted the importance of collecting and preserving a newborn's umbilical cord blood, which is usually discarded following delivery, said Professor Qiu Lugui at the Peking Union Medical College.

The blood is a rich source of stem cells, which can be collected, processed and preserved for future use by both the donor and other family members, experts say. In light of the fact, China began to establish its umbilical cord blood banks in the late 1990s, and so far it has set up 10 such establishments, housing more than 25,000 specimens, according to Qiu.

Qiu said the Tianjin bank is ready to provide a sufficient cell volume for Kailee's transplant.

If transportation of the cells is requested, Qiu said the utmost care needs to be taken to ensure they are stored at an extremely low temperature and not X-rayed when passing through customs.

(China Daily November 18, 2003)