SCOTS parents will make medical history next month when one of them donates stem cells to their daughter who has cancer.
Mackenzie Furniss, nine, is suffering from advanced childhood cancer and needs an experimental treatment to save her life.
One of her parents, either Kimberley or Jason will give stem cells to Mackenzie - the first time the risky procedure has ever been carried out in Scotland.
The £300,000 treatment is being pioneered by German doctor Professor Peter Lang.
After Mackenzie's parents struggled to raise funds for the treatment, the Scottish Government stepped in with £160,000 to fund the stem cell donation, which will be carried out in Glasgow. The family has also had to meet the rest of the cost and have been inundated with kind donations.
Mackenzie will then need to make six return trips to Prof Lang's clinic near Stuttgart for antibody treatment to stop her body rejecting her parents' stem cells.
Kimberley, 29, said the stem cell donation was the last chance for Mackenzie.
Both parents, who are from Sauchie, Clackmannanshire, have given blood samples which scientists at Yorkhill Hospital are analysing to establish who is the best match.
Kimberley said: "Mackenzie really just wants to get back to normal and see her friends and go and play."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article