Friends and family of a dad-of-two from Sutton have put out an urgent appeal for a stem cell donor to come forward to save his life.

Terry Dawkins, 49, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia four days after suffering a stroke last year and has been told his only chance of survival is to find a matching stem cell donor.

Laura Weeks, who used to work with Terry’s wife Rebeckah, told Sutton Guardian: “The situation is quite desperate now.

“There was one point recently where he was in intensive care and they were going to put him on life support and they advised him to say goodbye.

“But his only chance of living now is to find a matching stem cell donor. I think people are put off being a donor because they think it has to be done by bone marrow. But that’s not always the case and it can be done through the blood.”

To potentially save Terry’s life visit https://www.dkms.org.uk/en/match4terry where you can register to swab the inside of your mouth to see if your blood stem cells are a match.

Members of the public can have their mouth swabbed at special events taking place tomorrow and Thursday (October 4 and 5) at Abbey Primary School, Glastonbury Rd, Morden, SM4 6NY. The events are being hosted DKMS, an organisation which helps fight blood cancer, and take place between 3pm to 6pm.

Terry is currently being treated at St. George’s Hospital, in Tooting.