A 14-year-old is counting on Birmingham's Iraqi community to raise £73,000 for a bone marrow transplant which will save his life.

Quatayba Yaseen was admitted to Birmingham Children's Hospital with Aplastic anaemia on New Year's Day.

Doctors told his family his transplant would cost £73,000 - the same as a private patient - because he was not a British citizen.

Quatayba's family have sold their most valuable possessions, including jewellery and land in Iraq, where they are from, to raise more than £40,000, but they are unable to find the entire sum.

His mother Hyda and father Ghassan, who live in Bordesley Green, fear their son's treatment, which has already started, may have to be abandoned if not enough is donated.

Mrs Yaseen, a 46-year-old housewife, said: "Our son swings between being in a critical and stable condition at hospital.

"This is a slow and hard process for us all. If things go well, his treatment will take four years.

"We just want our little boy to be back to normal. I try to remain optimistic and hope he will get better."

She said Quatayba, who wants to be a doctor, was unable to walk because the cancer had started in his knee and had a permanent fever.

Pupils at the George Dixon International Secondary School in Edgbaston, where a family friend works, have sold pizza slices and the Birmingham Iraqi community have held bring-and-buy sales to raise funds for Quatayba.

A spokeswoman from Birmingham Children's Hospital said the National Health Service required a non-European patient to pay the full fees if they need nonemergency treatment.

She said: "We have applied the criteria for eligibility for NHS treatment and in this particular case, the patient is not eligible for NHS treatment and is therefore treated as a private patient.

"We have charged a normal fee for treatment, as we would for any private patient. Quatayba has started treatment and we have not discussed at this stage what would happen if funds are not available."