Teenagers at Lochgelly High are the first school pupils in Fife to join Ava Stark’s band of potential heroes.
A total of 54 senior pupils at Lochgelly have registered for the Anthony Nolan stem cell register as a result of the campaign to find a match for local tot Ava.
Anthony Nolan “student champions” welcomed members of the public to the school’s dining hall on Saturday, where an open event to find more potential donors was held by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
The event saw a further 85 people sign up and give saliva samples for testing.
Thousands of people have already joined the stem cell register after an appeal was launched to find a match for three-year-old Ava, who suffers from bone marrow failure and needs a transplant to survive.
Among the Anthony Nolan champions at Lochgelly are Emma Bell and Kelsey Crowe, who are both 16.
The girls have joined the stem cell register and have been encouraging classmates who are old enough to do likewise.
Emma said: “The presentation by the fire brigade was really inspirational. You never know, you could be a donor for Ava or somebody else.”
Kelsey added: “I’m still young and my whole life is ahead of me so I wanted to help somebody else.”
Colin Mercer, 29, and Linda Shanks, 30, turned up to register with 18-month-old Grace during the event on Saturday.
Mr Mercer said: “We’ve seen the story on the news a couple of times.
“I’ve got a little girl as well and it’s heartbreaking to see that someone could lose their little girl.
“We’re here because even if we can’t help Ava, we might be able to help someone else in the future.”
Amy Bartlett from Anthony Nolan said: “At Anthony Nolan we are so incredibly grateful to the school, the pupils, the fire service and the Stark family, and the communities of Fife for responding in such significant numbers to Ava’s appeal.
“There are thousands of other Avas out there and you could end up donating to anyone in the world.”
