US woman Linda Wells returned to Beijing yesterday after a visit to central China's Hunan Province, which could offer a glimmer of hope for her dying daughter Kailee.

Wells, whose critically ill adopted daughter will die unless she receives a bone marrow transplant -- hopefully from a member of her biological family -- said she is waiting anxiously to see if a man, that many believed to be Kailee's biological father, could really be the little girl's savior.

Wells, who arrived in Beijing in mid-February, traveled to Hunan Province, Kailee's birthplace, where she gathered two blood samples from a shoemaker -- surnamed Ma, who local police and media believe is Kailee's biological father.

Wells, a 50-year-old US lawyer, said Kailee, also known by her Chinese name of Changban, was adopted from Changde in Hunan after being abandoned as a baby in 1997.

The six-year-old is suffering from a fatal disease -- aplastic anemia.

Doctors said that a bone-marrow transplant -- ideally from a sibling or parent -- is her only hope of survival.

Wells said she had delivered the blood samples to the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) yesterday.

Hong Junling, deputy director of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Donor Program Administration Center of the RCSC, said his agency was conducting DNA tests yesterday.

The results, whether Ma is the biological father and if his bone marrow matches, will not be available until tonight, he said.

"I could see Mr. Ma is an honest man... but I think the chances are probably not too strong, just because he was not with the woman when she left the baby, so he couldn't know where the woman left the girl or what day she left her," said Wells.

With this doubt in her mind, Wells said she will first fly to Shanghai tonight and then Hong Kong and possibly to Taiwan to continue her mission to save her daughter.

"If Mr. Ma is not the father, I will be disappointed. But there is still hope that the biological family will come forward and the press are still looking for other clues," she said.

If Ma is the biological father, Wells said she will fly back to Hunan.

She said she hoped her drive will enhance people's awareness of the bone marrow registry -- not just for Kailee, but for many other people who need bone marrow transplants to survive.

Hong said a huge number of Chinese people have pledged to help Kailee after her story was reported in the Chinese media.

Apart from a flurry of blood donors, at least 20 Chinese doctors, and patients who have recovered from a similar diseases as Kailee's have written to the Red Cross offering their support to her, Hong said.

(China Daily February 25, 2003)