BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, London hosted a bone marrow awareness and recruitment drive on Saturday 27 January 2018.

The drive was in support of children such as Yuvan, a 9-year-old boy suffering from leukaemia. His condition was diagnosed 4 years ago but unfortunately relapsed and now his best chance of surviving is to find a bone marrow transplant match. There are 2,000 people searching for a blood stem cell donor every year in the UK and unfortunately 70% of UK patients do not find a matching donor in their families. Finding a matching tissue type is much more difficult for patients of Asian, Black and Ethnic minority backgrounds.

BAPS Charities therefore strives to undertake bone marrow donor recruitment drives to increase the number of Asian donors on the national register.

The most recent drive was performed together with DKMS, a charity that works to increase recruitment onto the National Bone Marrow Registry. The Mandir has previously hosted DKMS in 2013 and 2015.

Together with DKMS and friends of Yuvan’s family, volunteers from BAPS Charities held a highly energetic drive raising awareness about the need for bone marrow donors and registering new potential donors. It was a huge success with 215 new registrants.

Vinay Thakkar, father of Yuvan, said, “BAPS Charities has been truly amazing in arranging the drive at very short notice. This kind of effort brings a lot of hope and energy to a family like ours and especially to children like Yuvan. We cannot thank BAPS Charities enough for helping us in this crucial journey in our fight against leukaemia.”

Lisa Nugent from DKMS added, “A big thank you to the entire team at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir for all their support with the recent donor registration event. 215 people signed up as potential lifesavers, which is a fabulous result. We are grateful to everyone who gave up their time to register and who will potentially give a patient a second chance of life in the future.”

The challenge of matching the need of bone marrow donors in the Asian community continues and we encourage others to register. To find out more information about the eligibility criteria and to register online, please visit the DKMS and Anthony Nolan Trust websites at the respective links.

A bone marrow transplant can save a life!

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