The marrow was donated by a young Taiwanese man and was transported 12 hours across the Straits before being transplanted into the body of the patient, Chen Xia.

The blood and marrow were flown 3,000 kilometres to Suzhou via Taipei, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Doctors at the No. 1 Hospital attached to Suzhou University implanted the marrow into Chen in an operation lasting four hours.

She was diagnosed with leukaemia in September last year. Her illness was brought under control after a series of chemotherapy sessions.

Being the only child in her family, Chen had a one in 100,000 possibility of finding marrow to match.

Lu Daopei, an expert in haemopathy - blood illnesses - and marrow transplants, contacted Lee Cheng-tao of the Tzu Chi Taiwan Marrow Donor Registry (TCTMDR), which is responsible for supplying the marrow. It is the third largest of its kind in the world.

The match rate for same-type marrow between receiver and donor is one in 10,000 for family members and one in 100,000 among non-relatives, according to medical experts.

Many leukaemia sufferers on the mainland have found their match types among Taiwanese people, largely because lots of Taiwanese or their parents went to the island from south China decades ago, said Lee Cheng-tao, the director of TCTMDR.

Chen's search for marrow was taken up by TCTMDR last March, and the man who had registered for donation was reached in April.

It is the 86th case of a Taiwanese person giving marrow to save the life of a compatriot on the Chinese mainland.

(China Daily 06/15/2001)