A police officer is making such good progress in his battle against leukaemia that he has been allowed home from hospital.

Inspector Rik Basra, who had a blood stem cell transplant on Christmas Eve, has been doing so well that nurses have given him the nickname "Captain Marvel".

The 53-year-old was allowed to leave Leicester Royal Infirmary on Friday and is eating well and exercising each day, his wife Kas said.

"He has coped with his treatment incredibly well and his consultants are really pleased with his progress," she said.

"He never complains but I know that some days he is scared – he doesn't actually say it, but I know him so well I can see it in his face.

"We need to get to day 100 before we know if the transplant has worked but this is a great start. Because of the risk of infection we have to keep everything disinfected and we can't have anyone in the house.

"We don't want to get too excited but we are both incredibly happy and thrilled to be back home together."

Rik, who has served with Leicestershire police for 26 years, learned he had acute myeloid leukaemia in 2009.

It is a form of cancer which attacks the body's ability to produce healthy blood cells.

He underwent several bouts of chemotherapy and thought he had beaten the disease.

However, earlier last year he felt unwell again and went for tests which revealed the cancer had returned.

Leukaemia damages the body's stem cells, which in turn affects its ability to create healthy blood and to then build an effective immune system, allowing the to cancer spread.

The transplant involved a transfusion of blood that contains healthy stem cells, which will help him build a stronger immune system to fight the cancer. Kas said: "When you're in this position you take things hour by hour, day by day.

"I'm going by what the doctors have told us and it's amazing he has been able to come home after 20 days.

"As well as that, they'd told us he would be weak and wouldn't be eating much.

"But he's eating three meals a day and is exercising regularly to build his strength up. That's why the nurses are calling him 'Captain Marvel'."

In the months before the transplant was carried out, Rik, his family, friends and police colleagues threw themselves into the national campaign to build up the number of donors on a national register maintained by the charity, Anthony Nolan.

As a result of their efforts, hundreds of members of the public, including many of Rik's police colleagues, signed up to become potential donors.

The British database is much smaller than those in several European countries and Asian people are particularly under-represented on it.

Shortly before Christmas, as his health was beginning to deteriorate rapidly, his donor was found in Germany.