A FATHER-OF-TWO was today due to undergo surgery to offer the gift of life to a seriously ill German.

Big-hearted Richard Lomax has been told his bone marrow is the perfect match of the sick man - defying odds of more than a thousand to one.

The 37-year-old quantity surveyor was having the bone marrow extracted from his pelvic bone at a Harley Street clinic in London today.

A courier was due to whisk the bone marrow off to the secret location in Germany, where it will be transplanted into the patient within 36 hours.

Richard, a partner in Donald Lomax Quantity Surveyors, of East Park Road, Blackburn, said today: "I know nothing about the man, apart from that he lives somewhere in Germany. "I am doing this through the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust and I had the chance to talk to other people who had donated bone marrow.

"But I declined as they may have told me it was very painful."

Richard, of Mire Ash Brow, Mellor, has already undergone a strict medical and will have a general anaesthetic while the bone marrow is taken from his body.

He will then have a well-earned week off work to recover.

He added: "The trust does not do anything until it knows the transplant has been successful.

"It is then up to the other patient to decide if he wants to know who I am."

Richard has been on the Anthony Nolan register for eight years and there are currently more than 250,000 people willing to donate bone marrow.

He was instrumental in Blackburn '83 Round Table's bid to persuade donors to go on the register.

He will become the third East Lancashire man to give bone marrow to someone overseas following big-hearted Darwener Gary Royle and David Duckworth, of Langho.

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