MOTHER Hazel Bartlett was honoured with an award after saving a leukaemia victim's life by donating her bone marrow.

The 35-year-old petrol station supervisor was hailed as Member of the Year by the Ancient Order of Foresters after beating off hundreds of nominees nationwide.

She first signed up to the national bone marrow donor register in Bere Regis when she was 17 years old and was one of just 10 people worldwide to donate bone marrow last year.

On September 22 she went through an hour-long operation to extract her bone marrow, which was immediately flown out to Sweden to be transplanted into a man with leukaemia.

Six months after the transplant, which was the Swedish man's last chance of survival, Hazel was thrilled to hear he was doing well.

Hazel's father Lewis, from Bere Regis, who has been a member of the order for 68 years, said: "The Bere Regis court of the order was formed about 140 years ago, before the National Health Service, to offer people health care benefits. Nowadays it's more of an insurance thing, but there is a social side of it - there are orders all over the country including local ones in Bere Regis, Dorchester and Weymouth.

"I nominated Hazel because I'm so proud of her - it was quite an operation she went though."

Hazel, who works at a filling station in Wool and has a two-year-old son, was presented with her award at the British Legion club-house in the village at a ceremony attended by Peter Hurd, chairman of the Bone Marrow Authority in Bristol.

She said: "I don't know what all the fuss is about - I've never met the man who received my bone marrow, so it's very difficult to comprehend what I did."

The chances of a bone marrow match are so rare that despite there being millions of people on the international registers, the chances of finding a donor are rare.

Hazel and her sister Doreen have both been called up for tests over the years to see if they were a suitable match, but they were never called for the second stage of testing until Hazel got the call last year.