ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

A talented young footballer who needed a life-saving transplant found a donor thousands of miles away after his hero Raheem Sterling campaigned to find a match.

Damary Dawkins, 12, a member of Crystal Palace’s elite development squad, was diagnosed with very rare acute lymphoblastic leukaemia aged nine.

Last summer his parents were told he would not live past Christmas if a blood stem cell donor was not found. However, no one in the Dagenham schoolboy’s family or on the worldwide transplant register was a match.

Manchester City and England star Sterling stepped in with pleas to find a donor on his social media accounts and Crystal Palace also ran a campaign, working with blood cancer charity DKMS. In December a donor was finally found in the US.

Damary’s father Tony Dawkins told the Standard: “He’s doing well now. He’s getting a bit restless in hospital and desperately wants to get back on the football field. We are hoping he will be out soon.

"Raheem Sterling’s support has been amazing. He came down just before Christmas and stayed for two hours. He was giving Damary words of encouragement. It’s definitely helped him through.”

Almost 70 per cent of patients who need a stem cell transplant can find a match from a stranger but this drops to just 20 per cent for those from a black, Asian or ethnic minority background.

Sterling wrote on Facebook: “Doctors have confirmed Damary’s only hope of survival is through stem cell treatment. If you are of Afro-Caribbean descent please sign up to be a donor, you could be a match for Damary or someone else that needs your help.”

Mr Dawkins added: “The social media campaign really helped ... I just don’t think Damary would be here now if it hadn’t been for all the support we got.”

Damary said: “Sterling’s my favourite player so it was nice to meet him. I just want to get back to playing football now.”

The family have also been supported by the African-Caribbean Leukaemia Trust.

Sterling recently wrote a letter to a young Manchester City fan, urging him to “stand tall” after he was racially abused. Ethan Ross’s grandmother contacted the footballer because her grandson was having a “tough time”.

Join the donor register at aclt.org