ASIAN cast members from the hugely successful musical The King and I have joined a drive to get more people to donate life-saving bone marrow.

The campaign, called The Gift of Life, is being run by the National Blood Service which is particularly hoping to attract more donors from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The service is aiming to recruit 40,000 new donors this year, and it is essential to recruit people from all parts of the wider ethnic community as some tissue types are more common to particular ethnic groups than others.

However, only two per cent of donors on the register come from non-Caucasian backgrounds.

Bone marrow is the tissue from which blood cells are made and for people suffering from leukaemia and other diseases of the blood, often a bone marrow transplant is the only way to save their life.

In about 30 per cent of cases a matching donor can be found from the sick person's direct family, but for the rest there is a reliance on volunteers.

A spokesperson for the National Blood Service, said: "A total of 14 adult bone marrow transplants were carried out in Southampton last year and there are around 18 people currently waiting.

"To be a bone marrow donor really means you are giving someone the gift of life."

Azumi Ono, who plays Topsy in the production, said: "I hope that our support of the National Blood Transfusion Service will help to highlight the importance of giving bone marrow as well as blood.