A Bradford policeman was today awaiting a crucial medical treatment for his eight-year-old daughter, hoping it will 'buy some time' in his hunt for a life-saving bone marrow donor.

Little Alice Maddocks, who has a rare bone marrow disorder, was due to undergo traumatic and painful drug treatment on Monday but a bout of illness forced this to be postponed.

Her father, PC Dean Maddocks, stressed the immune-suppression treatment was not a cure and 'at best, will buy us some more time'.

The Bradford South-based officer has been hunting a donor since discovering Alice had aplastic anaemia, a life threatening disease which halts the production of red and white blood cells.

Alice has already undergone the treatment once when it caused side effects including painful joints, severe vomiting, high fever, diarrhoea and skin reactions.

"This weekend we found that Alice had contracted shingles which can be very dangerous with her condition," said Mr Maddocks.

"She has to make sure that is completely clear before we can go ahead with the treatment again."

The youngster will receive antibiotics for the next week and can expect to stay in hospital for a further three weeks for the drugs treatment, designed to 'knock back' her malfunctioning immune system.

"It is not something we are looking forward to but it just has to be done. We will be by Alice's bedside every minute," said PC Maddocks.

"She is such a brave little girl and it takes a great deal to get her down.

"Last time, she was in such pain and all she wanted to do was thank the doctors."

Alice went to watch her favourite pop group S Club 7 perform in Sheffield over the weekend.

"We had been hoping she would meet the band on the night but that didn't happen. The tour manager called afterwards saying she could meet them when she got out of hospital.

"It has given her a goal - something to look forward to and a focus to fight to get well."

PC Maddocks' worldwide search for the exact donor to save Alice has seen him launch a special internet site, appear on national television and write to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

He has hit out at the National Blood Service, which operates the British Bone Marrow Registry, for being unco-operative and even calling him "unfair" for straining its workload.

The group has said it is doing as much as it can, trebling the number of marrow donors over three years.