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Anthony Nolan Trust
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Comments
And you get a drink and biccies.
A 10k hurts a lot more than a blood donation - honest !!!
Gooooo onnnnnn ! Did I mention the nurses ? ;-)
Good idea about the work thing - I'm going to bring it up at the staff meeting next Monday.
Lots of info on www.anthonynolan.org.uk
I have the same issue. I travel regularly to Africa and have been told I can't give blood.
If this doesn't apply to the bone marrow thing, I 'm happy to go for it.
Anyone know???
contact them through their website - I've just been told that despite having odd antibodies in my blood (not allowed to donate it) i CAN be a donor hurrah!!
They also said they weren't going to follow it up to see whether, just perhaps, I could be cleared as OK, because their register is bulging with white women already so they didn't really care whether I joined it or not. They really know how to make a girl feel that she's doing something virtuous!
So blokes and the ethnically non-European among you, get along there! Blood donation doesn't hurt even a teensy bit, you get a general anaesthetic and a serious dose of love-bombing when you wake up if you are called upon to donate bone marrow, and you might even save a life.
I wasn't trying to be mysterious; I think there's another thread in which I discuss being ill...
But just to fill you in, and because I so admire Cath's openness about her illness and want to emulate her, I've got a malignant bone marrow disease (it's called myelodysplastic syndrome, what a great name, eh?) which I contracted when I was 27 (over ten years ago). It's in the leukaemia family (sounds like the Partridge family!). There's no cure, and the average survival rate is five years, but I've lucked out so far, thanks to first-rate medical care, getting a place on an effective clinical trial of a drug that makes my blood at least viable, and a certain amount of chutzpah, I guess.
Bome marrow transplants are the last resort in an illness like this. None of my family are compatible donors, so I would rely on the astronomical odds of the marrow register, like so many people...
But I just think of the kids, who have such a good chance of cure; and adults with acute leukaemias facing horrible prognoses; these are the ones who need the chance. These diseases are real nightmares; you can die of infection from a paper cut, or from bleeding from a routine bump or fall, or from getting insufficient oxygen. You can feel perfectly well one day, and have lungs full of pneumonia the next. The world can seem like a treatening place, full of microbes and possible accidents. It's a bad business.
So go for it, all who can. You'll potentially give back both life and freedom.
Thanks guys.
DC
Don't know what to say. I admire your courage and ability to share.. that can't be easy.
I PROMISE to look into it. If I can I will.
I'll give it a go and register if I'm allowed to.
Is there an age limit?
All the best,
RB
Is this any use to you : Aged 18 - 40
In general good health - SEE HEALTH CRITERIA
Weigh over eight stone. Although in the case of donors from some ethnic groups this is lowered to 7.5st.
Women must not be pregnant
Women with children under the age of 12 months cannot join or donate marrow during that time
Health and circumstances permitting you stay on the Register until your 60th birthday, so don't be put off joining if you are close to 40, particularly if you are male.
We urge all eligible volunteers to come forward, but we have a specific clinical need to recruit more male, ethnic minority and mixed race volunteers.
In some cases we will accept male donors and those from ethnic groups up to the age of 43 and at the lower weight of 7st 7lb -please ask for details
Website :
www.anthonynolan.org.uk
Are they serious about the age limit??
Why???
Is there some medical explanation for this?
Now I'm really disappointed. :-(
"MALARIA (i) If volunteer has taken a full course of anti-malarial tablets he/she is still acceptable to proceed. (ii) If volunteer has suffered from malaria within the past year he/she is not acceptable for the time being. If the time span is greater than 1 year and the donor is asymptomatic the volunteer is acceptable."
I registered about 10 years ago. Two years later, I was called up to be a donor as I was a potential match, as was my elder sister. We had to go through a process of giving lots of blood samples (which took several weeks), and got down to a 1 in 4 chance of actually being the donor for a patient in Italy. With a few weeks to go before they would need one of us (only me and my sister had been found to be compatible), the operation was cancelled - unfortunately, they never tell you why, so, to this day, I have no idea what happened to the patient. Did they die because we didn't get on the Register early enough? Or did they find a local donor at the last minute? And this is why I ran for Anthony Nolan in FLM 2001 and hope to do so again next year.
It doesn't take a lot, and I can't understand why (if people are physically capable of donating) some people won't even give blood, never mind bone marrow.
I wasn't allowed to give blood for two years, because they introduced a new test question, and they thought I might be carrying malaria, and I was gutted: thankfully, I'm now a full donor again...
Is this where I say "boing"?
Waap.
Boing..
Waapster,
I gave blood on Monday, and they had posters all over the place about going on the bone marrow register, so it looks like they might be giving it a bit more of a push now....
Ratbag,
In the latest issue of The Anthony Nolan magazine, it says the following:
"If you're not yet on the Register, and would like to know more, please call our donor recruitment department on 0207 284 1234 or e-mail newdonor@anthonynolan.org.uk. You should generally be between 18 and 40, in good health, and weigh more than 8st (7.5st for Asian donors). Young, fit, male donors aged 18-25 are particularly required."
Other than the fact that this depresses me because I'm not considered "young" any more, I'm hoping this helps clear things up a bit?
BOING!
boinggggggggg..............
Gavo
Partly a "boing" and partly to say that Anthony Nolan have now confirmed that I'll be one of their Gold Bond runners in FLM 2003. Hurrah. And partly "damn" as now I can't back out...