by Ross Lidbetter

ross.lidbetter@essnmedia.co.uk

A desperate mum whose six-year-old daughter needs a lifesaving bone marrow transplant says she cannot bear to think about life without her.

Imogin Appiah had been in remission only three months when she was struck by leukaemia for the second time in her short life.

Her mum Sheila, from Aurelia Road, Croydon, says clumps of her daughter's hair have already started to fall out as she undergoes chemotherapy at St George's Hospital, in Tooting.

The worried mother is now pleading for donors to come forward, one of whom could save Imogin's life.

"She is my world and I don't want to lose her," she said.

The resilient youngster is trying to remain positive about her hair loss.

Speaking from her hospital bed, Imogin said: "I'm going to put a lovely cap on so nobody will be able to say anything."

Without a bone marrow transplant there is a high chance her illness will keep returning, even if her chemotherapy is successful.

Sheila, 37, told the Advertiser: "My daughter is my everything to me.

"I am deeply in love with her. To think that she could be taken away from me is absolutely devastating. I can't lose her.

"I want her to have a bright future and to live her life as a normal six-year-old.

"I want her to live to the age of 90 or 100, go to college and university."

Imogin was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2006.

Sheila admits the news hit her like a bolt out of the blue.

After treatment, Imogin went into remission last October.

But shortly after Christmas Sheila began to realise the disease had returned.

Imogin's legs started to shake with pain and her T-shirts would not fit as she started to lose weight.

Then, last month, medics gave her the news she had been dreading.

"The first time I was trying to deal with my emotions, but the second time you think 'right we've got to get on with this'," Sheila explained.

"Imogin is incredible and remarkable. I was staring at the television the other night, looking stressed out.

"Imogin said 'mummy, why do you have to make a face like that? Go to the nail bar and put pink on your nails. Make them pinky'.

"Two months ago, before she was diagnosed again, she told me to stop worrying about the leukaemia and said 'if it's back I'll fight it a second time'.

"The way children deal with this is unbelievable. They don't think about death the way we do, they just get on with it."

Imogin, who attends Elmwood Infant School, in Lodge Road, Croydon, is expected to stay in hospital for at least two months.

But she is already planning her future and has a trip to Disneyland Paris in her mind.

She explained: "I want to go to the park and go on the roundabout because it can go fast."

As Imogin completes a puzzle, Sheila stares lovingly at her only child in the tiny hospital room.

The dance teacher said: "Imogin has a humble heart and loves everybody.

"I don't know how my child is doing this having been diagnosed again, but she is very matter of fact about it."

With her daughter's life on the line Sheila is desperate for more people to join the bone marrow register.

"You could save a child's life," she said. "Imogin is only six - she wants to live."

*To find out more about becoming a bone marrow donor call 08457 711 711.