A health chief today urged Bradford's ethnic minorities to join a bone marrow donation register to help leukaemia sufferers across the world.

Manoj Joshi, chairman of the Bradford Health Equality Action Team, said there was still a shortage of volunteers coming forward from the city's Asian and black communities.

He blamed a lack of information and a mistaken belief that leukaemia - the disease which can go into remission if the sufferer is given fresh bone marrow - only affected a few.

His call came after the Telegraph & Argus revealed a special bone marrow donor session will be held in the city on May 11.

It has been organised by the family of Emma Kaminski, from Bradford, who suffers from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.

The disease normally affects children - but adults, mainly males, can be struck down and often it is more virulent in later life.

Mrs Kaminski has been told by doctors that only a bone marrow transplant will give her the chance of long-term remission after she became resistant to cancer-battling drugs.

Despite a world-wide search, Mrs Kaminski, 30, still has not found a suitable donor and even her twin sister has tested negative for a match.

Mr Joshi, who is also a non-executive director of Bradford City Primary Care Trust, said: "There is a lack of awareness within ethnic communities of various diseases which affect us all. People also think that bone marrow donations will only be useful for their immediate family and nobody else, which is also untrue.

"In fact, if someone is picked as a suitable donor it could be for anybody in the whole world, regardless of religion, race or creed.

"There are now 319,000 people registered on the Anthony Nolan Trust register which can be accessed by medical teams across the globe for suitable donors.

The session will be held on Saturday May 11 from 1.30pm to 5pm in Bradford's Midland Hotel.

Volunteers must be between 18 and 40 - or 43 for males and ethnic minorities - in good general health and weigh more than eight stone.