People usually volunteer to donate stem cells for an allogeneic transplant either because they have a loved one or friend who needs a match or because they want to help people.
In a personal communication to us Ms. Aman Bindra sought our assistance to spread her message to all the South Asian Stem Cell Donors who could help her with a personal situation.
"I'd like to ask for your help. My uncle's currently battling blood cancer and he needs a stem cell transplant soon in order to survive. Canadian Blood Services is trying to find a matching donor through their OneMatch.ca website, but they're saying that they need more South Asian donors to come forward," she wrote.
"I'm going around to local universities, TV stations, and gurdwaras trying to find more stem cell donors to help out cancer patients and I'd really appreciate it if you guys could help by spreading the word, especially in the South Asian community. You have to be between the ages of 17 and 35 to register, so there's a ton of potential donors within your subscribers. I'm trying really hard to raise awareness and get more people in our community to sign up as donors, and your help would go a long way."
Here is some info from Canadian Blood Services about stem cell donors and why they're so badly needed:
The bone marrow produces stem cells which usually mature into white blood cells. In a patient with blood cancer, these stem cells form cancer cells instead of healthy white blood cells.
These cancer cells crowd out the white blood cells in a patient's blood, leaving them unable to fight infections or disease. A stem cell donor is needed in order to inject healthy stem cells into the bone marrow of a cancer patient, so that these new stem cells can begin producing healthy white blood cells again. It takes only a minute to register as a stem cell donor through www.onematch.ca (Canadian Blood Services).
Once you've registered, Canadian Blood Services will mail you a swab kit, which you use to swab the inside of your cheek. Mail the swab kit back to them, and from your swab sample, they'll be able to tell if you're a match for a cancer patient. There's no need to donate blood. Once you've been matched as a donor, you'll be able to decide whether or not you want to go ahead with the stem cell transplant. The transplant itself is a simple procedure; it's very similar to a blood test.
It literally only takes a minute to register as a stem cell donor on www.onematch.ca and you can literally save someone's life.
So this is our little effort to raise awareness in the local South Asian population and getting people to register (Canadian Blood Services is especially looking for males). We thank you all in advance for participating in this noble cause.