Post donation care advice

Looking after yourself

No two donors are the same after donating. Some may feel tired, while others ache. Some may have no side effects at all. Please follow any advice given to you by the hospital staff. 

Below is our advice about how to take care of yourself and deal with any side effects after a stem cell, bone marrow, or lymphocyte donation. The main thing is to rest and take it easy. 

If you have any questions or concerns after your donation, please contact the Donor Follow Up team on 020 7424 6568 or at donor@anthonynolan.org 

For urgent out-of-hours issues please contact the 24- hour emergency number on 07710599161 

If you’ve donated peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC)

Recovery can look different for everyone, however we find donors are usually recovered after 2- 3 days. After you have donated our donor follow-up team will contact you to provide our post donation care and ensure you have a full recovery.

Many people feel totally fine after donating stem cells, but one or more of the symptoms below are also common.

In order to aid your recovery, we sometimes recommend that you take a multivitamin supplement for 2-4 weeks after your donation, particularly if you donated over 2 days.

If you’ve donated bone marrow

The side effects after donating bone marrow vary from donor to donor, as everyone is different. The important thing is to listen to your body, rest and don’t push yourself.

To aid your recovery, we sometimes recommend that you take a multivitamin supplement for 2-4 weeks after you have donated.

Below are some common side effects of donation – and what you can do to relieve them:

If you donated lymphocytes

Recovery can look different for everyone, however we find donors are usually recovered after 1- 2 days. After you have donated our donor follow-up team will contact you to provide our post donation care and ensure you have a full recovery.

Most people feel fine after donating lymphocytes, but there are two main side effects to look out for: