#stem cell donation

[thepiedsniper]

Register at home - Stem Cell Donors Australia

Each year, around 1,100 Aussie patients facing life-threatening blood cancers search for a stem cell donor. We urgently need more people to

PSA for Aussies: it's really really easy to join the stem cell donor registry. You just enter your details, get mailed an envelope with three swabs, swab your cheek meat, then send it back. Simple and free.

If you're one of the few people called to actually donate, then not only is that process also quite simple (basically a long blood/plasma donation) but you very literally directly save someone's life. It means your specific ethnicity is similar enough to someone in need, and if you hadn't donated, there honestly might not have been another donor close with a close enough genetic match. Your donation can go anywhere in the world, too!

Non-Aussies, I highly recommend looking into the process for your country 😊

[glitterglueandgooglyeyes]

Everyone should donate stem cells to help ppl with blood cancer because I'm sad that I can't do it (I have fibromyalgia)

[nacricissa]

I am now officially on the stem cell registry. Remarkably easy (at least in canada). Just go to blood.ca

[penrosesun]

I got a laugh from the long collection of countries, as if people in them don't have their own problems and would give a shit about some rando

Hey frankly? This is an unhinged thing to say in response to an awareness post that was trying to encourage more people around the world to become bone marrow donors. I made that post because a personal friend of mine was dying, and since none of her relatives were a transplant match, her best hope of survival was matching with a stranger somewhere, anywhere, who had joined the registry. However, nothing I said was about her, except for the fact that she was one of the many people whose lives could be saved if more people got tested and registered as potential donors.

People from other parts of the world have their own problems? Yeah, you bet they do, and one of those problems is that every single year, tens of thousands of them are diagnosed with life-threatening disease like leukemia and sickle cell, for which a blood stem cell transplant is the best or only treatment. Of those people, 70% don’t have a fully matched donor in their family, and therefore rely on the registry. Thousands around the world die every year because they weren’t able to find a match, and the percentage of the population which is on the donor registry in most countries is in the single digits. I literally do not care where you live. If you are in a country which has a bone marrow donor registry, and if you are eligible to register but choose not to because, in addition to helping any of the many people in need in your own country, it could maybe also ~possibly~ help someone in the US who you “don’t give a shit about”? Then fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Cutting off your nose to spite your face doesn’t even begin to describe it – there are people dying right there in your country’s own hospitals, but perish the thought that you could help save them when you might accidentally be a match with someone elsewhere in the world, and maybe end up saving my friend instead. Fuck you. Truly and sincerely, fuck you.

Anyway, for anyone reading this who has even the vaguest semblance of a conscience or a moral heart:

If you’re not registered as a bone marrow donor and are medically eligible, this is your sign to get registered, wherever you live:

Become a Donor | WMDA

[63-rats-in-a-vamp]

My blood is gone

[iamyouknow-yours]

Consider joining your local bone marrow registry!

You can save lives. If you're between 16 and 45, and generally healthy, please consider signing up.

The process of signing up is really easy, and if you're ever matched with someone to donate, the donation process is simple and painless.

https://sabmr.co.za/ <- that's the link to the South African registry.

https://www.dkms-africa.org/get-involved/become-a-donor <- you can also use DKMS if you prefer.

https://www.dkms.org/ <- if you're not in South Africa.

You sign up to the registry online (give them a bit of basic info and they check your eligibility, and then they'll organise a cheek swab).

Then anyone who needs a donation (such as some people with leukemia) has their marrow tested against everyone on the registry.

When they find a close enough match, the person is contacted.

If the person agrees to donate, their marrow is tested further, and if they're still a match, then the process is very simple.

The donor gets an injection for 5 days in a row, to increase the movement of stem cells from their bone marrow into their blood.

On the fifth day, blood will be taken, filtered through a machine to take the stem cells out, and returned to the donor.

They can go home on the same day.

Joining the registry does not mean you will donate, and if you do join and are contacted, you still have a choice.

There's no compensation involved, but often your expenses (such as travel) are paid. And you will incur no medical costs.

[avoliot]

A question about bone marrow donation. I'm seeing a lot of stuff that says they're less likely to want you if you're over 35. Given that I am currently exactly 35, is it still worthwhile for me to register?

Another good question. From what I've seen, the registries have different age limits, so if the filtering lets you through, then I would take that as the intended result? If it doesn't, then thank you anyway for reading the post - the orgs behind the registries are all playing a big numbers game that we're trying to rig in everyone's favour, so honestly just knowing about the registry and normalising knowledge of it really helps.

Edit as I'm not sure I really answered the question: I think you're actually asking if you're likely to get a call before you are no longer of an age where you want to donate. I think the only answer to that is 'it depends' - for the registries, it seems to be an issue of how long you might be on the registry until you get a match (could be decades) and how likely you are at that point to have any related health complications yourself, which means ethically they won't risk doing an unnecessary medical procedure to you. There are definitely people older than 35 on the registry who signed up younger. My answer's still 'why not, if the filter lets you through' but I recognise there's just an enormous amount of chance here.

[avoliot]

I wish I could do the match thing but I can't drive and there's no real public transportation where I live, so I wouldn't be able to get to where the recipient was quickly enough.

Good question to raise! Let me talk a little bit more about the practicalities of donating stem cells and/or bone marrow (for our purposes the same thing):

1. The registry charity makes the arrangements. They deal with the hospitals and help you schedule appointments. Now, this one is going to vary by country, so check the website for your country, but at least in the UK and US the charity pays for travel and any overnight stays. I couldn't get to the local blood test appointment (the first thing you do after the match) because I didn't have a car - I explained this to my charity contact and they sent a nurse to my house. I don't want to speak for exactly what an organisation will or won't do, but I can't imagine it would be a dealbreaker if you said "I need to be reimbursed for a taxi to get from X to Y". Helping donors get to donations is what these organisations do.

2. It's not a sudden, urgent event. You won't be rung up and told 'we need you to donate tomorrow'. It takes place over weeks - they make sure you really are the best match, and then you have a checkup appointment, and then finally you have the donation. It's all discussed in advance with your representative from the charity, who makes all the bookings with the hospitals for you.

3. You won't meet the patient. They may not even be in your country - I'm in the UK, and my recipient was in America! The donation is flown to where it needs to go. You'll just be asked to go to the specialist hospital that the charity works with (in the UK I was offered London or Sheffield). You and the patient get actually limited information about each other at the time to protect both your privacy, but you are allowed to make contact later.

Generally the charities behind the registries exist to connect donors and patients, and within reason they'll do the heavy lifting to make that happen (mine even booked my train ticket for me, though I don't know if that's standard or just what made sense for my case.)

If anyone is reading all this and wondering what it's about, google 'stem cell registry'/'bone marrow registry' in your country :) I've also just posted on Instagram - @ everina_maxwell - about exactly what my donation experience was like if anyone's curious (happy to port this over if there's a demand).