Leukaemia sufferer Steven Nutt has been told he will have to pay to store sperm which could be his only hope for a family.

The 15-year-old had chemotherapy at the John Radcliffe Hospital, in Headington, Oxford, before receiving a bone marrow transplant from his older brother David.

Doctors warned that the intense treatment could leave him sterile, and advised Steven to store sperm at the JR's Women's Centre until he was ready to start a family.

But the Peers School pupil has been told that once he turns 18, he will have to pay £100 a year for the privilege.

Steven, of Paget Road, Cowley, said: "The first I knew I would have to pay was when I went to give my sperm. I had to sign some forms to say that I would pay, otherwise it would be thrown away. I don't think it's very fair, because I might not actually have a choice about whether I can have a family like other people, and I might need to use that sperm in the future."

The teenager's father, Malcolm, is angry because other hospitals provide free sperm storage.

He said: "At first we were told he would have to pay for the storage after a year, but now they have said it will be free until he's 18. It's disgusting really that you have to pay at all, but it's up to Steven in the long run because it's his future.

"If it was up to me, I wouldn't pay when I know that other hospitals charge nothing."

Doctors tell all men undergoing chemotherapy that the treatment could cause sterilization, and offer them the chance to freeze fertile sperm.

Scientists have not found a way to store female eggs when a woman is affected by chemotherapy, but they can store embryos - produced when a female egg is fertilised by sperm.

Dr Enda McVeigh, consultant gynaecologist and medical director of the JR in vitro fertilisation unit, said sperm was cryogenically frozen in liquid nitrogen.

He said: "We have to pay for the large tank of nitrogen and for staff and the NHS won't fund these facilities. However, we do not make a profit.

"A free service could be offered to cancer patients, but IVF patients -- who pay to have embryos frozen -- would end up subsidising it.

"We have approached health authorities, but although Wiltshire agreed to pay for everything, Oxfordshire will only pay for the first year, which means patients at least have time to consider their options."