LEUKAEMIA fighter Mick Baines will have to wait at least a year to meet the American donor who saved his life.

Mick, of Abbey Village, near Blackburn, underwent a bone marrow transplant at the Christie Hospital in Manchester two years ago.

A 27-year-old American nurse donated her marrow when it was found to be a perfect match after doctors had searched donor registers across the globe.

Rules laid down by the charities which hold donor details -- such as the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust -- insist that donor and recipient cannot know the identity of each other for at least two years following the operation.

For Mick, who has written to the donor via the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust, this Christmas would have marked two years since the operation, and he had hoped he would finally get to speak to the woman who saved his life.

But he said: "I had hoped to request making contact with her this Christmas but because I needed some more bone marrow last February, the two years started again then.

"That means I won't be able to contact her for another year at least, which is disappointing.

"At the end of the day, it is up to her if she wants to make contact with me.

"All I have known so far is that she is a nurse in Chicago, but she sent a card wishing me luck at the time of the first operation and we have exchanged Christmas cards."

Mick, 43, of Bolton Road, was first diagnosed with leukaemia in 1997, and repeated courses of chemotherapy meant he had to give up his job working as a security guard at Express Gifts in Church.

He had previously been a policeman based at Great Harwood, Accrington and Blackburn.

For the next five years he continued to fight against the disease, knowing his only hope of recovery was finding a matching bone marrow donor.

Intensive bouts of chemotherapy had failed to beat off the killer cancer.

The bone marrow helps regulate the number of white blood cells in the body. Mick's body had produced too many.

A match was finally found -- a one in a million chance -- for Mick late in 2000 after the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust tracked a blood-match in America who had agreed to become a donor.

The bone marrow was flown to Britain, and injected into Mick at the Christie Hospital, Manchester. Mick spent several weeks in isolation before finally being allowed home.

However, he was confined to his home for nearly four months because the transplant had weakened his immune system to the point where even a cold could prove fatal.

Slowly, his life has begun to return to normal, and apart from the need for last year's second transplant, everything is going well said Mick.

He added: "I am back at work, doing some shifts at Asda in Blackburn, which is something I am really pleased to be doing.

"The main problem is that some cold bugs can be a lot more dangerous to me because my immune system is so low, but it is only a case of being careful."