This October, our lifesaving Marrow students from across the country met for the 2015 Marrow AGM. It was an opportunity to share stories, celebrate successes, and plan for the year ahead.
In the second of two blog retrospectives, Caoimhe from UWE Marrow takes a look back at a very special weekend.
Introduction
What do 300 students and 50 different universities have in common? They all descended on the University of Leeds one damp and dreary weekend in October, for the National Marrow Annual General Meeting (AGM). In a nutshell, it celebrated the achievements of Marrow, and allowed students to share their experiences over the past 12 months, as well as the campaign for 2014-2015 to be the #bestmarrowyearever!
Day 1 - Morning
At 10am on Saturday, everyone assembled for a spot of breakfast and something students and adults alike enjoy: a free cuppa…in a Marrow travel mug!
Silly as it may seem, it’s the little things that make us students happy, and it’s the little things we all do as separate groups up and down the country that count towards Marrow’s overall contribution to Anthony Nolan. Sums up the purpose of the AGM in one, really!
No time was wasted and we immediately got down to hearing about our main success stories (drumroll, please…no, really, we had to do a drumroll!)
13,072 potential lifesavers recruited
£161,000 raised for Anthony Nolan
As of the start of the academic year 2015, 25% of all potential lifesavers were being recruited by Marrow groups – an absolutely phenomenal achievement! To top that, we learnt that the vital funds raised allow Anthony Nolan to continue their amazing work. Put into context, that’s 805,000 potentially lifesaving spit kits or 1,610 people fully processed and added to the register.
When put like that, it’s not surprising that while we celebrated, the rest of the weekend was spent pooling ideas on how to make 2015-2016 the #evenbetterbestmarrowyearever.
Day 1 – Afternoon
The afternoon started with tailored workshops for each role within the committee, including Presidential Development, Donor Recruitment, Fundraising, Volunteer Management and Communications.
Each workshop allowed for the sharing of experiences; successes and difficulties alike, encountered with working with students and encouraging student participation. This was followed by a new addition to the Marrow AGM this year; the Marrow Fair. This gave students a chance to explore various areas of Anthony Nolan, such as the R&Be team; Anthony Nolan Policy and Public Affairs; and Marrow Alumni (for those of us who just don’t know how to let go…even after we’ve left university).
Day 1 – Speakers
As well as being a practical affair, this year’s AGM proved to be particularly emotional.
Firstly, we heard from James Kustow, the founder of Marrow back in 1997. Never in his wildest dreams did he see his Nottingham group of medical students turning into a national organisation. His continuing enthusiasm after all these years was infectious, and all groups came away with a new sense of commitment to saving as many lives as possible!
Later, Dorothy shared her story of dealing with blood cancer while being a single parent bringing up two children. We sometimes forget, with our focus on students and student recruitment, that really, anyone can get blood cancer.
You could tell Dorothy’s story had touched the hearts of many in that lecture room, by both the sheer interest and genuine empathy in her story, and the raucous round of applause she received after sharing it (after all, us students still know how to make a good racket!)
On the opposite end of the age spectrum, our next speaker was a father of two; however, he was speaking because the direct recipient of Anthony Nolan’s work was a little bit young to give a speech to so many people.
Gaurav was only 2 when his parents received the news that he had blood cancer, and their campaign to find him a match went viral! It was a real eye-opener, particularly to our Communications guys, of the power social media can have in a life-changing campaign!
Our wonderful Saturday speakers take a bow
Day 1 – Evening
After such a packed day, who would have thought we had time for more fun? With a very short turnaround time, we were all back at Leeds Students Union for the Marrow AGM Awards evening.
This evening continued to celebrate our achievements, but with some friendly competition, including:
Highest Fundraisers – Leeds
Highest Donor Recruiters – Leeds
Special Contribution to Fundraising – St. George’s, London
Special Contribution to Donor Recruitment – Birmingham
Special Contribution to Communications – Cardiff
Best New Group – Brunel
Most Improved Group - Manchester(And many, many more!)
After the formalities, Marrow hit up Leeds for a night into the small hours, proving that you can indeed #savelivesandsocialise
Day 2
Then we were back again, bright and early, to the University of Leeds (those travel mugs really came in handy!) for a similar plan of action to the day before.
The National Marrow Committee 2015-2016 were elected in by the Marrow members present after some riveting campaign speeches, all demonstrating continuing passion for Marrow and Anthony Nolan.
The second day of guest speakers showed us the diversity that Marrow has to offer. Stuart, a donor for Anthony Nolan, spoke of the myths surrounding him undertaking the bone marrow donation process, while considering the continuing stigma around giving blood as an actively gay man; as well as the overwhelming support he received from family, friends and alike for giving someone a chance at life!
Our final speaker showed how Marrow has not only grown nationally but has spread internationally! As well as having International Marrow representatives from Switzerland and Poland, Elizabeth spoke to us about the ‘Be The Match On Campus’ campaign in the USA, Be The Match’s equivalent to Marrow. This gave all of the students a true sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves.
Final Roundup
So that was a bit of a whistle-stop tour of the National AGM 2015, and what a weekend was had by all. As Alex, our National Marrow President 2015-2016, said, ‘I can’t believe we’ve just pulled off the largest National Marrow AGM in Leeds – and it was bloody brilliant!'
Interested in joining one of our magic Marrow groups? Find out more here.