In the UK today there are a large number of people who desperately need a bone marrow transplant to save their lives. Life-threatening conditions such as lymphoma, leukaemia, certain anaemias and other blood cancers all lead to the patient needing an urgent transplant to save their life.

Unfortunately, 70% of patients who need a bone marrow transplant do not have a matching donor in their own family. As a result the British Bone Marrow Registry is essential to save their lives.

What is bone marrow?

Bone marrow is the spongy substance found inside the bones. The bone marrow is made up of stem cells, which later go on to develop into white blood cells, platelets and red blood cells. White blood cells have many jobs, not least to fight infections that the body comes up against. Red blood cells carry oxygen around the body and platelets help the blood to clot when bleeding.

Donating bone marrow

To be able to donate bone marrow you need to be registerd on British Bone Marrow Registry.  As there are so many tissue types it is essential to have as many people on the register as possible to maximise the chances of finding a match for patients who urgently need this treatment. For this reason it is extremely important for patients from all ethnic and racial groups to be represented.

At present the registry is short of donors who are:

• male, aged 17 – 40 and already a blood donor
• female, aged 17 – 40 from Black, Asian, minority ethnicities and mixed ethnicity backgrounds

If you want to become a donor and do not meet these criteria, you should still contact the registry as there may be other opportunites to donate.

There is a lot of information available on the registry website for people who are considering adding their name to it.  It only takes a swab of cells from inside your cheek or a small blood sample to determine your tissue type and be added to the register. When a patient needs a transplant, their doctor checks the register to see if there are any willing donors who match their type.

What can we do to help?

If you are not already on the register then please consider doing so. Your decision could one day lead to you saving somebody’s life!

You can also arrange a drive to raise awareness of the bone marrow donation and the register and to encourage other healthy adults to join to. The more people that are registered as donors, the higher the chance of finding a match for our loved ones when it really means the most!

You can find out more about donating bone marrow and blood stem cells at the Anthony Nolan website.

By Heather Smith, medical negligence solicitor