Staff at the Gloucestershire Echo have stepped forward to volunteer themselves as potential bone marrow donors.

The paper recently featured the story of local schoolgirl Laura Edwards, who is fighting leukaemia, and after a huge campaign a donor was found for the teenager and she is due to undergo a transplant next month.

Her story prompted hundreds of people to register with the Anthony Nolan Trust – including staff at the Echo.

Trust nurses held a donor session at the paper’s Clarence Parade offices in Cheltenham, and after an informal interview – where a handful of donors had to be turned away for medical reasons – 20 Echo staff were put forward to provide a blood sample.

The tissue type of each sample will now be tested and unless any problems are uncovered they will be placed on a register until each donor is 60.

Echo editor Anita Syvret said: “Laura’s story touched the hearts of all our readers and created an enormous amount of interest in signing up as bone marrow donors.

“The chances of her finding a match in her own community were slim, but nevertheless people wanted to do something and it made sense for us to do our bit.”

She added that the number of volunteers would have been much higher, but for a strict criteria which states donors must be between 18 and 40 and weigh more than eight stone.

Among those to be tested was 28-year-old Echo editorial design assistant Murry Toms.

He said: “I had to do something. I may never be needed but at least I’ll know I’ve volunteered.”