West Midlands Fire Service has teamed up with The Anthony Nolan Trust to run a number of donor recruitment clinics to offer staff and members of the public the chance to become lifesavers by joining the Bone Marrow Register.
The fire service got involved with The Anthony Nolan Trust after one of its firefighters, Steve Lock (37), was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia. Steve, who has undergone two courses of chemotherapy already and is preparing for a third, needs a bone marrow transplant to save his life.
Clinics, where people in good health aged between 18 and 40 can sign up to the Charity’s bone marrow register, will take place at fire stations across the West Midlands Fire Service area this summer.
Steve Lock, who lives in Coventry with his wife Amanda, is a member of the Technical Rescue team based at Bickenhill Fire Station and was formerly based at Radford Road and Foleshill Fire Stations in Coventry. An ex-soldier with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Steve has been a firefighter for the past seven years.
Having always been super-fit and healthy, when Steve started to find his physical job and sporting hobbies becoming progressively more difficult in February this year he knew something was wrong. He was diagnosed with leukaemia in April. Acute myeloid leukaemia is a cancer of the white blood cells, where abnormal cells accumulate in the bone marrow and interfere with the production of normal red blood cells. Chemotherapy is the initial treatment for this kind of leukaemia, aimed at inducing remission, but this severely weakens a person’s immune system so a bone marrow transplant is essential to give the person healthy cells to regenerate the immune system.
Since April, the search has been on to find a lifesaving bone marrow match for Steve. Both his sister and his brother have been tested but are not a match. In up to 70 per cent of cases family members will not be suitable matches for bone marrow transplant, which is why The Anthony Nolan Trust bone marrow register is so important.
Steve is trying to maintain a positive attitude and is especially grateful to his firefighter colleagues who have rallied round to help organise the forthcoming Anthony Nolan Trust donor recruitment clinics.
He said: “My colleagues have been massively supportive for me, organising half a dozen screening dates in the area to boost the possibilities of donors coming forward.
“Even if none of the donors my mates encourage to come forward is a perfect match for me, they could serve to save someone else’s life,” added Steve.
There are currently 16,000 people worldwide in need of a bone marrow transplant, but because individual genetic makeup is so varied the chances of finding a suitable donor are slim. The Anthony Nolan Trust maintains a register of volunteer bone marrow donors to help improve the ‘needle in a haystack’ search that takes place each time someone is diagnosed with leukaemia. In the UK, 27,000 adults and children are diagnosed with leukaemia each year.
Alex Frazier, of The Anthony Nolan Trust, is grateful to West Midlands Fire Service for getting behind Steve’s search for a donor.
“For the 16,000 people worldwide desperately in need of a bone marrow transplant, including Steve, a bone marrow donor whose tissue type matches their own could mean the difference between life and death,” said Alex Frazier.
“It’s fantastic that West Midlands Fire Service have been so supportive in arranging this series of donor recruitment clinics. A potential match for Steve could be found, and for everyone who signs up there is the chance that they might be a match for someone else.
“This is a real call to action for people in the West Midlands - we need as many healthy people aged between 18-40 to come forward and sign up as possible! There is also a shortage of donors from the Asian community, and because matches are usually found from within the same ethnic communities, it’d be fantastic if we could get a really diverse range of people coming forward to register over the summer clinics,” added Alex Frazier.
Registering at the clinic involves giving a small blood sample, which is tested to establish the tissue type and the results stored on the Charity’s database, which is of course confidential.As a new member of the register the donor receives a registration card and written confirmation of being a potential lifesaver. A donor may be found to be a match for a patient almost immediately or may wait many years before being asked to donate – and in some cases may never donate at all if there is no match.
The Clinics will take place as follows (click here for more information):
- Wednesday, July 30, 3pm until 7pm – Coventry Fire Station, Radford Road
- Tuesday, August 5, 3pm until 7pm – Highgate Fire Station, Moseley Road
- Thursday, August 7, 1pm until 5pm – WMFS Training Centre, Dartmouth Road, Smethwick
- Tuesday, August 12, 3pm until 7pm – Handsworth Fire Station, Rookery Road
- Tuesday, August 19, 3pm until 7pm – Dudley Fire Station, Burton Road
- Tuesday, August 26, 3pm until 7pm – Fallings Park Fire Station, Bushbury Road
Anyone unable to attend the clinic can register by calling The Anthony Nolan Trust on 020 7284 1234 or by clicking here.
