The family of Kailee Wells faces an agonising two-day wait for the results of a DNA test after a man claiming to be the girl's biological father stepped forward. Six-year-old Kailee was adopted by an American couple after being abandoned as a baby in rural Hunan province. But she is desperately ill with aplastic anaemia and doctors say a bone-marrow transplant is her only hope of survival. In an attempt to find a genetic match for Kailee, mother Linda Wells has travelled to China to track down her relatives. The search appeared to have hit a brick wall until Mo Zhengde, 40, a shoe-maker from a rural village outside Chengde in Hunan, said Kailee could be his daughter. Mrs Wells, who last night flew to Beijing with two vials of blood taken from the potential donor for DNA sampling, said she was 'cautiously optimistic'. 'His story matches up,' said Mrs Wells, 50, of New Mexico. 'But we have to wait for the results of a paternity test and further typing checks before we get too hopeful.' In order for bone-marrow transplants to be successful, the donor has to be a perfect tissue match with the recipient. The Wells family has already run checks on nine million potential donors signed up to international registers, without success. Mr Mo was found after a policeman, who had worked for seven years in the area where Kailee was abandoned, said he recalled a man and his pregnant partner splitting up. He said he believed their child was abandoned at about the same time as Kailee was found on January 14, 1997, near the Teacher's Training Institute in Changde. Reporters tracked Mr Mo to his home in Hua Ya Xi, 60 km outside the city, to tell him of Kailee's plight. He immediately agreed to take a DNA test. Mrs Wells said the man, who now has a family with new partner, appeared to be genuinely concerned and had made no mention of money or compensation. 'I may or may not be the father of this girl,' Mr Mo said. 'You know these things happen, but as I am a Changde citizen, even if I am not the father of the girl, I still want to have my blood tested to see if it can help her. 'I knew my girlfriend had been pregnant for a few months when she ran away and I have not seen her since. 'I am not afraid of being punished. If the baby was abandoned, and it is Kailee, then it was my girlfriend who abandoned her and not me. 'If I really am Kailee's father, I thank Mrs Wells very much for caring for her all through these years.' He added that he would do anything to help. Mrs Wells chose to fly the blood samples to Beijing, where she has access the nation's most sophisticated laboratories at the headquarters of the Red Cross Society of China. However it is expected to be another 48 hours before results come back. Mrs Wells said: 'I am not holding my hopes up too high. 'This is something about which I feel very cautious. I fully understand that my mission has been like searching for a needle in a haystack. And to find the father and a potential donor match so quickly would be absolutely beyond the realms of fiction. But miracles do happen.' Graphic: KAIL24GET
