Seven thousand people worldwide need the help of strangers in order to receive life-saving bone marrow treatment. For many people with leukaemia, their last chance to beat the disease is to have a bone marrow transplant. Unfortunately only three in every ten patients are able to find donors within their family. Bristol University students are trying to help find other donors by organising a bone marrow clinic on Wednesday, 17 January.
Organised by Bristol Marrow, a student organisation that works alongside the Anthony Nolan Trust, the clinic provides an opportunity for people to register as potential donors. People wanting to register need to be aged 18 to 40 and in good health. To register, people will be talked through the donation process, asked to complete a medical form and to give a small sample of blood. The clinic takes place on Wednesday, 17 January from 1.30 pm to 6 pm in the Wills Memorial Building, Clifton, Bristol.
Sarah Oakley, 3rd year Bristol University medical student and Bristol Marrow spokesperson, said: “Joining the register with the intention to donate is a simple but potentially life saving act. It also provides families with the hope that one day a donor may be found.”
Illnesses such as leukaemia along with other blood disorders can cause a person’s bone marrow to malfunction leaving the patient in need of a transplant in order to survive. Illnesses like these can affect anyone but often attack children and young adults.
David was just 20 when he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL). After three months of chemotherapy he was told that a bone marrow transplant offered his only hope of a complete cure. David eventually received a transplant from his sister, who had been found to be a suitable match. The transplant involves taking the marrow from the donor’s bone then transfusing it, like blood, into the patient.
David said: “The transplant began with an intensive course of chemotherapy followed by radiation designed to eliminate all my own marrow and any remaining leukemia cells, but which also left my body in complete disarray.
“However this was a significant turning point and from then on my treatment took on a more restorative approach designed to nurture the new bone marrow. Three years on I lead a relatively healthy, happy, normal life, which I think is living proof of the difference a successful transplant can make.”
The Anthony Nolan Trust has helped over 4,000 people find suitable donors. Last year its Bristol student group Bristol Marrow recruited over one hundred student donors to the register. However many more potential donors are needed as the chances of finding a suitable donor is 1 in 30,000.
Bristol Marrow President, Amit Parekh, said: “It is now not always necessary to take the marrow from a donor’s bone. Seventy per cent of transplants now take place by the donor receiving a series of injections that makes the right cells leak into their blood. They then go through a process, a bit like dialysis, to remove the cells from their blood. This may make the donor feel a bit ‘fluey’ but saves them having an operation.
“Before I joined Bristol Marrow, I never appreciated just how easy it is join the bone marrow register. Four years on, I have seen students become life-saving donors. They have given the ultimate gift anyone could give and in doing so have transformed the lives of a patient and their families.”