Actress Joanna Lumley OBE has swapped shoulder pads for a lab coat in support of Anthony Nolan.
One of our earliest supporters since the 1970s, the actress visited our London-based laboratory to see first-hand the work carried out by our experts in stem cell transplantation.
“I could never have dreamed how complex and brilliant the work is to find a match for a recipient and to track down a donor,” says Joanna Lumley.
“I am very proud to be associated with Anthony Nolan and to have been able to see how its valuable work has gone from strength to strength in helping to save the lives of people all over the world.”
We uses our register to match bone marrow donors to blood cancer patients in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant – often their last chance of survival.
Henny Braund, Anthony Nolan’s Chief Executive, was delighted to welcome Joanna to the charity’s laboratories: “It was a pleasure to see how interested Joanna was in our work and to hear how inspired she was by the dedication and professionalism of all our staff.”
Laboratory scientist Daniel Eggleston was one of Anthony Nolan’s staff who met Joanna during her visit. He donated his bone marrow earlier this year to a female patient just two months after starting work at the charity.
Dan is part of the team which amplifies and analyses the DNA found in saliva and blood samples for tissue typing. The tissue typing process is conducted for the Anthony Nolan register and transplant centres around the world.
There are currently around 1,700 people in the UK in need of a bone marrow, or blood stem cell, transplant. Anyone aged 16–30 can sign up to the Anthony Nolan register, although the charity particularly needs young men to sign up. Potential donors need to fill in a short online form and provide a small saliva sample.