The Rotary Club of Nipissing is teaming up with Canadian Blood Services to register potential stem cell donors.
The club says there is a significant need to recruit more donors, noting the need to find good matches among the list of Matched Unrelated Donors (MUD) and patients exceeds what is available on the Canadian Blood Services registry and Hema Quebec Registry.
Rotarian Colin Vickers received a stem cell transplant.
It was needed after intensive treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
He says he wasn’t a match for any of the 400,000 unrelated registered donors in Canada, but a match was found overseas.
Vickers says more donors are needed, particularly men.
“Probably two-thirds of those registered are women,” he says.
Diversity is also key in registering donors.
“People who have a racial background as Black, or as South Asian and Indigenous people, it’s important to do that so that the percentage chance within those ethnic groups will rise,” he says.
A campaign is underway using social media, educational programs, and events like a “swab in”.
“People would be able to do a cheek swab right there and it would be sent in and then with some tests they would be registered,” Vickers says. “Otherwise, people can register online and a swab kit will be sent out.”
He says the event will likely take place in March.
Rotary says donors need to be 17-35 years of age, complete a brief screening survey online and then complete a cheek swab kit.
For more information about stem cell donation, visit: https://blood.ca/rotary
