Margot Martini sparked country's biggest donor drive, says national cancer charity

Delete Blood Cancer UK said the fundraising efforts of Team Margot will lead to lives being saved after thousands of people across the country have already joined the country's stem cell donation register.

Today, World Cancer Day, it has been revealed that Team Margot raised £185,000 for the charity which will cover the registration costs of many new potential blood stem cell donors.

Peter Mas-Mollinedo, chief executive at Delete Blood Cancer UK, said: "We very much appreciate the huge efforts of the Martini family and their friends in raising both funds and awareness of the cause. Their tireless drive to encourage people to go on standby to donate some of their blood stem cells leaves a special legacy for Margot, and will directly lead to many lives being saved."

Team Margot is made up of the family and friends of the toddler.

They started a worldwide appeal to raise awareness to find a matching blood stem cell donor for Margot, who was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer in October 2013 at the age of only 14 months old, and for all those in need of lifesaving donations. A donor was found for Margot and she had a blood stem cell donation in February 2014, but sadly she relapsed and passed away in October 2014. Her blood stem cell donation enabled her to spend some special extra time with her family.

Margot's mother Vicki, 39, grew up in Essington, Staffordshire, and lives in London with her husband Yaser and two sons Rufus and Oscar.

Yaser said: "We couldn't have raised this money without the fantastic support of all the wonderful people who, inspired by Margot's story and what we are doing in her honour, took positive action. Thank you to everyone for supporting, donating and/or fundraising in the name of Team Margot. We imagine a world where every patient is confident of finding his or her matching donor and we're delighted to be working with Delete Blood Cancer UK and their sister organisations to help make this vision a reality."

Team Margot continues to work to recruit more potential lifesavers in Margot's memory to increase the life chances of all those in need of a blood stem cell donation. Delete Blood Cancer UK is running a series of future recruitment events in 2015 in partnership with Team Margot to enable even more people to sign up onto the register of potential donors.

For more information go to www.teammargot.com.