A ROSYTH dad is hoping to say Auf Wiedersehen to his battle with cancer after a potential lifesaver was found – in Germany.

As reported by the Press earlier this year, Dean Falconer and his family were left devastated with the news that he was facing his second fight against Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.

He was first diagnosed with the condition in March last year, just 25 days after the birth of his daughter Maci, before routine tests in April revealed it had returned.

However, doctors have now traced a stem cell donor in Germany and Dean, 24, of Sherbrooke Road, is due to receive the vital transplant in September. His mum, Lynne Head, said the recent news was a “dream come true”.

“This is going to cure him once and for all,” she said.

“This is the life saving thing that is going to cure him. As it stands, he is in remission from the two rounds of chemo but, because he has relapsed already, they want to do this transplant to make sure it is gone.”

The search for a donor began soon after Dean received the terrible news that his cancer was back and Lynne said they have been amazed at how quickly somebody was found.

“They found one donor who is about a perfect match,” she said. “I think with a perfect match, it is 12 out of 12 and this guy is 11 out of 12. All we know is he is a 28 year old guy from Germany. I think a year after the transplant, then they are allowed to contact each other if they want.

“As soon as they figured he needed a transplant, the hospital put Dean’s type of stem cell into the database and it flags up who has got it. It flagged up four donors, I could not believe it.

“We had an appointment on June 11 in Glasgow and they talked us through the transplant and she said she had better tell us the important news that they had found a donor – I could have picked her up and cuddled her. I couldn’t believe it.

“What happens from then is they contact the donor as even though they have signed up, they needed to make sure he was still willing to do it. We waited about three weeks to hear anything else and got word a week past Friday that they had heard back from the donor and he had agreed to the date of September 5.

“I am absolutely delighted. I want to scream from the roof tops. It is a dream come true. People can wait years for a donor and they found one for Dean.

“The procedure for the donor will take place in Germany. Over four days, he will go and get an injection to boost stem cells and I think on the day they take bloods from him, he is in hospital for about four hours. For Dean, it is just like an infusion and just takes about an hour and a half. It isn’t a big major operation.”

Since April, family and friends have been rallying round Dean, his partner Erin and daughter Maci after the illness forced him to stop work at Mowi in Rosyth.

A fundraising appeal was started to help out and a Star in Your Eyes night – which will include entertainment, a disco and raffles – is taking place tomorrow (Saturday) in Rosyth Civil Services Club. Tickets are £5 for adults and £2 for children and anyone wanting to go along can contact Lynne at www.facebook.com/lynne.head.1.

Lynne added: “The support we have had has been amazing. My two friends have organised this fundraising night and the amount of family and friends who have signed up has been great. You sign up and go on a database.”

The family are still keen that as many people as possible get added to the register to help families in similar situations and encourage anyone interested to visit www.dkms.org.uk/en.