News & Events

82 New Donors Register at Bone Marrow Recruitment Drive
Saturday 28 January 2012

As part of its continuing partnership with The Anthony Nolan Trust, BAPS Charities UK organised a recruitment drive for bone marrow donors on the evening of Saturday 28 January 2012 at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, London. This follows the funds and awareness raised for the UK blood cancer charity in 2009 from BAPS’s Family Walk & Fun Run.

There is a specific shortage of young male donors between the ages of 18 and 30, and this event helped to address this gap. For example, a 24-year-old temple-goer of Indian origin has recently been diagnosed with leukaemia and urgently requires a bone marrow transplant. A match had not been found from the current register of bone marrow donors, and this drive will help many like him find a life-saving match, especially as the likelihood of a match increases with donors from the same ethnic background.

As part of the drive, a total of 22 volunteers from BAPS Charities were also trained in recruiting bone marrow donors. Lynsey Dickson, Regional Recruitment Manager for Anthony Nolan, suggested that volunteers from the charity would be taken with the Anthony Nolan team to other recruitment events in the local community in the future.

The campaign proved to be a notable success as 82 new donors registered. A young male that had registered to be a donor at a previous drive with BAPS Charities spoke of his experience of being a bone marrow donor, and his privilege of saving a life. This helped to encourage many more young people to register.

For more information about joining the Bone Marrow Register and the important work of The Anthony Nolan Trust, please follow the respective links.

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