ONLY you could save Duncan - that's the simple message on special posters going up around Basingstoke.

Those poignant words together with a photograph of father-of-two Duncan Gray are now being displayed around the town as support grows for a crucial bone marrow donor recruitment clinic being held in Basingstoke next month.

Duncan is dying of leukaemia and a bone marrow transplant is the only thing that could save his life.

Just days before the posters started going up in the town centre, Duncan was at his home in Juniper Close, Chineham, preparing boxes of keepsakes and recording bedtime stories for his children, Laurence, five, and Alice, two, so they will have something to remember him by if he doesn't survive.

"I have been recording some of the stories I read to Laurence at bedtime in case I don't make it," he said. "It's a bit morbid but it's something I wanted to do."

He added: "Laurence is very on-the-ball. He understands a lot about what is going on, but he doesn't know I might die."

Now Duncan and his wife Susanne are appealing to Basingstoke residents to come to The Gazette-backed bone marrow donor recruitment clinic to help give leukaemia sufferers a chance.

"More bone marrow donors are desperately needed," he said. "If you do this, you could be helping anyone, anywhere in the world."

Duncan was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in March 2001. He immediately started a course of chemotherapy, but it failed to get him into remission. After a trial drug called Glivec failed to cure the cancer, the Anthony Nolan Trust began a worldwide search for a bone marrow donor.

A further course of chemotherapy last month again failed to get him into remission and he is currently in hospital undergoing stronger treatment.

"This is my last chance to dance," he said, remaining positive despite everything he has been through.

"When we first got the news we were devastated. There was a lot of soul-searching and tears. But then you realise that life has to go on. If I die, I die. It is Susanne and the children who are going to suffer. I have to think about them."

Duncan said his experience has taught him to appreciate life more.

"Every day is precious," he said. "You don't realise that until something like this happens to you or someone close to you."

If you are interested in becoming a bone marrow donor, the clinic will take place at Basingstoke Rugby Football Club at Down Grange on Saturday, May 11, from 11am to 4pm.