The Department of Health has welcomed the new collaboration to speed up the search for a suitable match for blood cancer patients who need bone marrow and stem cell treatments.
The Welsh Bone Marrow Donor Registry (WBMDR) has aligned its register into a single UK registry together with Anthony Nolan and the British Bone Marrow Registry (run by NHS Blood and Transplant). This change came into effect from the start of the month.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: ‘This new aligned registry is fantastic news and will help save the lives of many who are in desperate need of a bone marrow or stem cell transplant.
‘We want to continually develop stem cell transplant services in the UK and have committed £12 million to improve the supply of stem cells for those who need them.’
The aligned registry builds on the work that the Department of Health supported in 2011 in aligning the Anthony Nolan and the British Bone Marrow Registry. This has already provided significant improvements in the way that stem cell donors and patients are matched.