Dr Who actor Peter Capaldi has helped launch a campaign in memory of a toddler who died of leukaemia.

Cancer charity Team Margot will be holding Crouch End 4 Margot, a blood cancer awareness week from Monday in Crouch End, Muswell Hill and Highgate.

Inspired by two-year-old Margot Martini, who lost her fight with leukaemia last autumn, the group will give talks in schools and businesses on the importance of donating stem cells.

The week will culminate with an event at Coleridge Primary School on Saturday, January 17, which aims to register more than 1,000 potential stem cell donors. The day will be opened by the Mayor of Haringey Councillor Kaushika Amin.

Anyone wishing to sign up will be registered with Delete Blood Cancer UK and their details will be added to the UK Stem Cell Registry, which can be searched by anyone in the world.

Team Margot says that in the last two years only 135 people from Crouch End, 34 from Highgate and 72 from Muswell Hill have registered with Delete Blood Cancer UK.

Margot’s father Yaser Martini said he was “blown away” with the work Team Margot, made up of the Martini family and friends, had put into organising the week and said it looked to be “hugely successful”.

Crouch End actor Peter Capaldi, who played spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It before taking the role of Dr Who, said: “I‘m delighted to see my local community coming together for such a worthy cause.

“Every swab can potentially save someone’s life or give some precious time with loved ones. What a fantastic way to start the year.”

Joe Hallett, donor recruitment manager at Delete Blood Cancer UK, added: “This donor registration event is also the first event of its kind and it’s scale for Delete Blood Cancer UK in that there isn't a specific patient in mind.

“We are hugely excited to be able to support CrouchEnd4Margot and can’t stress enough the importance of taking the action and joining the register.

“At the moment, in the UK 1,800 patients are waiting for a suitable blood stem cell donor. You can be that person, but unless you are registered, you wouldn’t know it.”