Last week, Woodford resident Dr Atul Gandecha donated his bone marrow in an attempt to save a stranger’s life. He is now encouraging the Asian community to join the bone marrow register.
Dr Gandecha, who is a dental surgeon and magistrate, originally joined the bone marrow register at the Hindu Temple BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden over 20 years ago.
In January, Dr. Gandecha was contacted by Anthony Nolan to say that he was a match for someone in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant.
Dr Gandecha, 48, says, ‘I was really pleased that I could be a bone marrow donor for someone. At first, I was also slightly concerned as I didn’t know what donation would involve; when I joined the register, the whole process was very different to how it is now. I went for a medical with the nurse who reassured me by telling me more about the donation process.’
Dr Gandecha donated his bone marrow last week via Peripheral Blood Stem Cell collection, a procedure similar to giving blood.
Dr Gandecha says, ‘The donation was fine. I was given injections for four days prior to donation to stimulate stem cell production which gave me some muscle and bone pains. On the day of donation, my blood was filtered two and half times in six hours. They need a minimum of six million stem cells for a donation and I managed to produce nearly nine million which was very high.
‘I felt slightly lethargic after the donation but went back to work a few days later and am doing fine.
‘I was given a badge and told I have changed someone's life. My recipient is a teenage boy, but I don’t know any more than that at the moment. I’m looking forward to hearing about his progress and hope that the transplant will be successful. It’s amazing to know that I have given someone the best chance possible.’
Dr Gandecha is using his experience to encourage more Asian people to join the bone marrow register. Potential donors from Asian backgrounds are currently under-represented on the register. This means that it is more difficult to find a suitable bone marrow donor for Asian people in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant.
Dr Gandecha says, ‘I strongly urge the members of the Asian community between the ages of 16 and 30 to join the bone marrow register so that they can also change someone’s life.’
Gulshan Noorani, Campaign Project Manager at Anthony Nolan says, ‘We urgently need more people from the Asian community to step forward and join the bone marrow register. Patients from White Northern European backgrounds have a 90% chance of finding a bone marrow donor. This falls to just 40% for people from Asian backgrounds. We can change this by recruiting more people from the Asian community to the bone marrow register.'
Find out more about the Asian campaign. If you are aged 16–30 and in good health, follow the link to join the bone marrow register.