Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Register

[tvr wife]

I am just posting to raise some awareness and hopefully encourage some of you to join, or consider joining, the Anthony Nolan Register to donate bone marrow or peripheral stem cells to a specific recipient who is a close tissue match to the donor.

Anthony Nolan are currently seeking men aged between 18-30 to join the register. Men apparently make better donors than women because their veins are better and do not have to be excluded due to pregnancy. I am posting this on Piston Heads because obviously the forum is mainly frequented by men.

They take people up to and including 40 years old on the Anthony Nolan register. If you are able to I would like to ask you to consider joining.

I donated peripheral stem cells last week and I was really surprised but how I felt. It was fine. Nothing more than a long session donating blood. I’m not going to harp on about it but if you have read this far then thanks for doing so. I’m happy to answer questions to the best of my, limited, knowledge if you have any.

Thanks

[K77 CTR]

Great topic, I've been considering signing up to this as a friends daughter will need a bone narrow transplant soon. Never realised the age limit was so low

I'll be off to Kenya very soon, so not sure if this affects my ability to donate like it does with blood donating.

[tvr wife]

Sorry to hear about your friends daughter, I hope they find her a match and that any treatment goes well.

I believe you can donate bone marrow and stem cells up to the age of 60 but the Anthony Nolan register will only add you on to the list up to and including the age of 40 because of financial limitations as it costs about £100 to add someone to the register and the chances of them being called within 20 years is relatively low I think. I am led to believe that the British Bone Marrow Registry will add people over the age of 40 to their register.

I'm not sure how travel affects the ability to donate. I think the questionnaire I filled in was similar to the one you complete when donating blood which asks lots of questions about your sex life, I don't recall if there were questions about travel too. I'm sure someone at either of the registers would be happy to answer that for you.

Have a safe trip to Kenya :-)

[Z4monster]

I've been on the register since about age 20. Now aged 44 and have only once been asked for a further blood sample to see if I was a match for someone.

I would donate tommorrow if I had the chance as it could well save someone's life. Always been a regular blood donor too since I was 18. Have over 50 donations under my belt now and hated having to stop a few years ago due to an operation. Once I had the all clear I went straight back to donating again. I have a pretty rare blood group so always make sure I go whenever I can.

[tvr wife]

I was on the register for 17+ years before I was called to donate so you still have plenty of time!!

I'm pleased to hear that you share your blood too, it is something I try to do but I so often fail because of my iron levels - I feel even more guilty that they count that as a donation even though I end up being sent home!

[bigandclever]

Slight tangent (and thread resurrection!) but...

Anthony Nolan said:

... has been shortlisted to become the Football League’s Official Charity Partner for the 2012/2013 season. But we need your vote to win. The partnership is worth £400,000 and could help us add 4,000 new donors to the register. Any one of these people could save the life of a person with blood cancer. Please vote for us now.

No registration or anyhthing required, just a click box.

http://www.football-league.co.uk/footballleaguenew...