Richard Colson (22), of Shirrel Avenue, suffers from aplastic anaemia which prevents the body making enough new blood cells and his only hope of survival is a bone marrow transplant.

His family searched over the summer for a suitable donor to no avail and now they want to make the register more accessible.

At present the only way in Scotland to join the bone marrow register is by contacting the Anthony Nolan Trust, but the Colson family believe that the Scottish Blood Transfusion Service should also provide this service.

Richard's dad, Robert, said: "The Anthony Nolan Trust is a wonderful organisation but we believe it should be a back up, we shouldn't have to rely solely on the work of a charity.

"The Scottish Blood Transfusion Service collects around 1,000 pints of blood every week, which is a lot of potential people to be added to the bone marrow register.

"However, at the moment there is no system in place for that to happen and we think the Scottish Government has to do more as they spend plenty of money encouraging people to give blood but never to join the bone marrow register.

"Obviously, we would never want people to stop giving blood but why can't both be advertised?

"This is an issue that may not affect someone today, but who can honestly say that will be the same tomorrow and we hope everyone across the whole of Scotland will get behind our petition."

The Colson family intend to present the petition at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday, October 8.

To sign visit www.richardcolson.co.uk