Young men are the number one choice to save the life of a stranger, says leading blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan.
Young men aged 19-25 have a 1/274 chance of being chosen to donate their bone marrow – and are six times more likely to be chosen than a young woman in the same age bracket. For someone with a blood cancer like leukaemia, a bone marrow transplant is often their last chance of survival.
Sam Wills, 25, donated his bone marrow in June. He says, “It sounds a bit strange, but the donation was actually quite a pleasant experience. I went into the hospital in the morning and five hours later it was over.
“So many people think that bone marrow donation is a scary and painful process but it’s actually really simple and painless. I genuinely believe that if more people knew the facts, more people would sign up as donors. All I’ve done is take a day out of my life to help someone in desperate need of a transplant – it’s such an easy thing to do.”
Around 80% of all bone marrow donations in the UK come from men, but young men make up just 12% of the Anthony Nolan bone marrow register. The charity is now urging men aged 16–30 to sign up to the register through their website.
Henny Braund, Anthony Nolan’s Chief Executive, says, “Every 20 minutes someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer, yet it takes just a fraction of that time to join the register. Many of our donors say that being chosen to donate is one of their greatest achievements – it’s a life-changing experience for both the donor and their recipient. We urgently need more young men to join the register, so I hope that more people take this opportunity to sign up and be a hero.”
For more information or to sign up to the register, please visit www.anthonynolan.org. Potential donors need to fill in a short application form and provide a small saliva sample.