Bone Marrow Campaign

Make a difference . . .Before it's too late

The Yvette Gate Bone Marrow Campaign is about saving lives. Currently many patients with serious bone marrow illnesses die because they are unable to find a suitable matching donor. But you can make a difference. By joining a bone marrow register you make yourself available to save someone's life. Joining is simple and just requires you to fill in a registration form and give a small blood sample. Your blood sample will be tested to determine your "tissue type".
If your tissue type matches that of a patient that needs a transplant then you will be asked to donate some bone marrow. You could be that patient's only hope.
Donation
Donating bone marrow is straight forward. It usually involves a surgical procedure under a general anaesthetic. Whilst you are asleep some of your bone marrow or (stem cells) is taken from the back of your pelvic bones by syringe. You would donate between 2% and 3% of your own marrow which regenerates in a few weeks. Donors say that the area where the marrow is extracted from can ache for a few days. But think about it. What is a few days of discomfort when it comes to saving somebody's life?
There is another method of donation which involves extraction of stem cells from the bloodstream. More details of this can be found on the website at www.yvettegate.co.uk .
Criteria for registration varies between countries and bone marrow registers.
The importance of the bone marrow register
If a patient needs a bone marrow transplant it usually means that all other treatment has failed. Their life may depend on finding a suitably matching donor. It is important that the donor closely matches the tissue type of the patient. Ideally a donor would come from a patient's own family member (brother or sister). But less that 30% of donors are actually found from within a donor's own family.
Therefore over 70% of transplants come from unrelated donors on the bone marrow register. So it becomes clearer how important this register is. Unfortunately there are not enough potential donors registered and many patients still die, unable to find a matching donor.
Greater need among minority groups
This need is even greater amongst black and other minority ethnic groups. Not only is there a greater variety of tissue types, but there are also far fewer people on the bone marrow register.
You really can make a difference in somebody's life by joining the bone marrow register. If you do not turn out to match a patient needing a life-saving transplant, then your details will be kept on a database. You never know, you may be somebody's lifesaver in the future.
Please do something special today. For patients waiting for a transplant time is running out so please make a difference . . . before it's too late.
Campaign website For more information visit the website at: www.yvettegate.co.uk