The South African Bone Marrow Registry held a stem-cell donor drive at Groote Schuur Hospital last Friday.
It coincided with World Marrow Donor Day, marked on the third Saturday of September each year.
“Every donor that we sign up is another chance for one of our patients to find a match,” said Zaahier Isaacs, the registry’s head of patient services.
“There are 42 million donors currently on the worldwide registry, and we celebrate all those donors that have signed up.”
Some 70% of donors worldwide were white with the rest being black, mixed-race, Hispanic and Asian, meaning it was harder for people of those racial groups to find donor matches, he said.
The registry works with Groote Schuur’s haematology clinic. “Many of their hospital patients come to us when searching for donors, and we facilitate with many of their patients to get a transplant,” Mr Isaacs said.
Prospective stem-cell donors are asked to provide a mouth swab to provide DNA that helps to determine whether they are a match. They can go to sabmr.co.za to fill in their details and request a swab kit to be couriered to them.
Sister Shamimah Diedericks, from the haematology clinic, said it was a painless procedure to harvest cells from a donor and they did not lose any blood during the process.
Email donors@sabmr.co.za or visit the registry on Facebook or Instagram for more information.
