Recently Orin Lewis of the ACLT had the pleasure of watching another great performance from one of the UK’s finest TV, film and theatre actors, David Harewood. But this performance had nothing to do with his thespian background and in time will probably be seen as one of his greatest accomplishments. RADA-trained David began his career in 1991 with ‘For the Greater Good’, and he has worked steadily on the small screen throughout the Nineties. In 1999 he hit the big time with two projects, ‘Always and Everyone’ and ‘The Vice’. In recent years he has played powerful characters in hit series such as ‘Babyfather’, ‘Fat Friends’ and the film ‘Blood Diamond’.
But this four hour performance was all about becoming a real life hero and icon by becoming an actual bone marrow donor by donating blood stem cells to an unknown recipient somewhere in the world, who was in urgent need of a transplant to save their life.
In May 2007, while filming in Romania, David received word from The Anthony Nolan Trust that he was a perfect match.
“I had to grab a week’s holiday and come back home,” explains the father of two.
“It was quite an emotional experience. It feels as if you have someone’s life in your hands, which is why I consider myself lucky to be a match. And I hope one day to meet the recipient to tell him it was a privilege.”
Sadly, such generosity and compassion are all too rare commodities in today’s world.
David heard about the need for more Black and Minority Ethnic donors whilst attending an ACLT event in 2005. It was at the event whilst listening to the urgent appeals to help DJ Swing, Danny Whyte and young Yvette Gate that David decided to join the bone marrow register.
Months later he attended a registration drive run by the ACLT at The Notting Hill Carnival. He was given information about bone marrow donation and had his blood sample drawn by a trained phlebotomist. David’s sample and details were processed and put on the Anthony Nolan bone marrow register along with others who had attended the session on the day; in the hope that one day he, along with thousands of other volunteer donors on the register may be a match for a particular patient somewhere in the world.
Currently less than 26% of people on world wide registers are from a Black or minority ethnic background. This makes it increasingly difficult to locate matching donors and why charities like the ACLT work with The Anthony Nolan Trust to raise awareness and the need for more donors.
Miraculously David was found to be a matching donor for an unknown male recipient and chose the peripheral stem cell donation method.
Orin Lewis was fortunate enough to join David during his donation and recalls the moment;
‘David relaxed and joked with the staff whilst blood was slowly drawn from one arm into the Filter machine sited next to his bed. The biggest problem David encountered was boredom from the relatively slow time taken to complete the whole process. But throughout the session he reiterated how proud and privileged he felt at being the lucky one to be able to give the Gift of Life to a total stranger and that hopefully many others would be inspired to follow his example and register as a potential donor. David Harewood, a real life hero to everyone.’
Text written by Orin Lewis, co-founder and Chief Executive of the ACLT (www.aclt.org)
Here at The Anthony Nolan Trust we are pleased to work with external volunteer groups like the ACLT to spread the urgent need for more volunteer donors. We appreciate all our external volunteer groups and the assistance they provide and wish for many more success stories like these in the not so distant future.
