A person suffering from leukemia has a 1 in 100 000 chance of finding a bone marrow stem cell donor match. That is one match for every 100 000 people

Most of us won’t meet 100 000 people in our lifetime. In fact, if you lived to be 90 years old, you would have to meet one person every eight hours, from the day you were born until the day you die.

Leukemia, a cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of blood cells, usually leukocytes (white blood cells) affects thousands of South Africans every year. Seventy-five percent of these patients are under the age of 25, and are mainly children. Without this transplant it would mean certain death.

The odds are even greater for South African sufferers due to the fact that our rainbow nation has a more unique combination of tissue types and the ‘markers’ that are tested when searching for a match are genetically inherited and often unique to a particular race.

The bone marrow which leukemia sufferers are in dire need of can be regarded as the factory for the production of red blood cells to carry oxygen, white cells to fight infection and platelets to prevent bleeding.

The donation, which is a simple process and not the dreaded spinal tap everyone fears, involves the collection of peripheral blood on a machine called a cell separator. The entire process is said to feel like a long blood donation session. It requires no anaesthetic or hip punctures and inflicts little if any discomfort.

It is vital that prospective donors realize that by joining the South African Bone Marrow Registry they could be called for anyone needing a transplant and not just the patient who first motivated them.

According to the Sunflower Fund, people are often keen to join the registry when they know the patient or when they become emotionally involved through press articles. However, some donors who have been perfect matches for someone else are unwilling to donate, saying that they only joined the registry for one person.

This is tragic, not only because money to test and register the donor was wasted, but those donors may have been the other patients only hope for survival.

Not everyone could stand the idea of potentially becoming a bone marrow donor whether it was the fear of needles, the supposed idea of the procedure being painful or because the idea of donating to a complete stranger and not someone dear is daunting.

However, becoming a donor gives you the exact same chance of having to actually donate as that of a leukemia sufferer finding a donor, so if you decide to sign up and you are serious about it, you are ultimately giving that person the most precious gift of all, the gift of alife.

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