A bone-marrow donor may well have been found for little Gracey, but not all those waiting for a transplant are as fortunate.
In the lead-up to World Marrow Donor Day on Saturday 17 September the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR) is launching a campaign to reach 100 000 blood stem-cell donor registrations.
After months of searching a donor was found for Gracelyn “Gracey” Green from Atlantis. The 1-year-old was diagnosed with juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia (JMML) – a rare cancer of the blood that affects young children, last August.
Her only chance of survival was a stem-cell transplant.
The awareness campaign, which will see a star named after a lucky donor once the target is reached, aims to bolster donor numbers significantly to increase the probability of a patient in need finding a match for transplant.
World Marrow Donor Day is celebrated globally each year to thank blood stem cell donors across the globe.
In the last three decades, the SA Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR) has travelled almost six times to the moon and back to collect blood stem cells from all four corners of the globe for South African patients in need of a transplant.
These precious stem cells help rebuild a patient’s immune system – working as a cure for numerous blood cancers.
In the lead up to World Marrow Donor Day celebrated on Saturday 17 September, the SABMR is launching an out-of-this-world campaign, which will see an actual star being named after a lucky donor once the registry reaches its target of 100 000 donor registrations.
Jane Ward, Deputy Director of the SABMR, says the registry consider each one of their almost 80 000 existing donors as stars.
She said: “Much like stars that are born in the same cluster share similar chemical signatures, which help scientists track the stars they are related to, so our donor searches help us to find genetic twins among humans that share matching DNA, no matter where in the world they are.
“And just like a star falls to grant someone’s wish, people – whether it’s family, friends or strangers – make sacrifices to make that wish come true. We are asking people to be a star in someone’s night sky by signing up to become a blood stem-cell donor.
“We are intimately connected with the universe – even our bodies are said to have been made of many of the same elements that stars are made of – which is why we thought it apt to name a star after a donor once we hit the 100 000 mark. The figure is significant as it symbolises the odds of finding a match. Currently, the chances of finding a tissue match are around 1 in 100 000.”
To date, the SABMR has saved the lives of more than 600 South African patients. However, only 25% of these donors have come from South Africa.
Ward says when no local matches are found, they have to look abroad, which takes time and can become costly.
“Our patients don’t have the luxury of time. They suffer from life-threatening illnesses such as leukaemia, lymphoma, aplastic anaemia and immune deficiency disorders that can claim their lives within the space of a few weeks or months.
“Less than half of blood stem-cell transplants in the country are from donors in South Africa, while the vast majority have come from donors in Germany and America. Stem-cell donations have also come from 25 other countries. If we had a larger local donor pool patients could be helped sooner, in this way increasing their chances of survival.”
She says each donor that is added to the registry, increases the probability of a patient finding a match. “In an ideal world there should be a local donor waiting and ready to go when a patient needs a transplant as is the case in many other countries.”
In SA, only 1% of the population are registered stem cell donors, compared to 13% in Cyprus, 12% in Israel and 9% in Germany. “This September we want to make the world shine a bit brighter for those afflicted with blood disorders,” Ward says. “To become eligible for the star-naming, you can sign up to become a donor online or at any of our drives. Who knows, you may become our 1 in 100 000 stem-cell star.”
To boost donor numbers this month, the SABMR will be hosting various events across the country. These include, physical donor drives, fun runs, celebrity-judged bake-offs and more. For more info on these events and how you can get involved, visit the https://sabmr.co.za/world-marrow-donor-day-wmdd/ or follow them on @sabonemreg.
If between age 16 and 45 and a potential donor, please contact the SABMR on 021 447 8638 or at donors@sabmr.co.za. Financial donations can also be made via www.sabmr.co.za/donate.
