We urgently need to recruit more volunteer donors from all ethnic backgrounds and increase the male population on our Register.
By recruiting more black and minority ethnic volunteers we can ensure that all UK patients have the best chance of finding a donor.
Why more ethnic minorities are needed
Tissue type is not random, but inherited - so patients in need of a transplant are most likely to find a compatible donor within their own ethnic community.
The African-Caribbean community is the most likely source of a donor for an African-Caribbean patient, for example. And the same is true for all of us - Chinese, Asian, Caucasian, Mediterranean, Jewish, whichever ethnic community we belong to.
The bottom line is – it’s much harder to find a donor for a non-Caucasian patient.
So for UK patients, awareness – and the search for a donor – has to begin with communities in the UK.
If you are from a black and minority ethnic community, please give this some serious thought : your community needs you, and you might just need it.
Click here to review how we are trying to increase awareness in Black & Minority Ethnic communities.
Why we need more males
The Register includes men and women from 18 to 60, but we need more young men, aged between 18 and 40!
Currently only 42% of potential donors on our Register are men - yet men supply 75% of actual donations.
If there is a choice of matching donors for a patient, in most cases, the transplant centre will prefer a male donor.
Why? Because……
- men are generally able to provide more of the vital cells, which help patients to engraft more quickly
- men are statistically less likely to suffer from anaemia - a condition that prevents someone from donating
- women are ineligible to donate for two years around pregnancy, making men, in general, more available. Many patients simply do not have this time to wait for a transplant
- evidence suggests that cells provided by female donors after pregnancy may have a higher incidence of graft versus host disease (GvHD).
In all probability (and we are talking statistically about the population as a whole), younger people will be healthier. Studies also associate younger donors with slightly better overall survival rates for patients.
We need more young, male donors.
