Every year on 28th May, people around the world come together for World Blood Cancer Day, a global movement to raise awareness and drive action in the fight against blood cancers and advocates for a better treatment.
The day serves as a reminder of:
- The growing global burden of blood cancers
- The importance of early diagnosis and timely treatment
- The critical need for stem cell donors
- The role of research in improving patient outcomes
This year individuals are being encouraged to consider signing up as bone marrow donors to potentially help those affected by leukaemia and other blood cancers.
Bone marrow is a spongy tissue inside bones that houses the stem cells responsible for making new blood cells and immune cells. Many forms of blood cancer are characterized by problems in the bone marrow; for example, myeloma is defined by the abnormal growth of immune cells called plasma cells in this spongy tissue.
A bone marrow transplant, also known as a hematopoietic stem cell transplant, is a procedure that aims to wipe out a patient’s existing bone marrow stem cells and replace them with stem cells from a healthy donor. For people with certain blood cancers, this procedure can be curative, eliminating cancer cells and allowing the body to make a fresh supply of new healthy blood cells.
For a bone transplant to be performed safely, the patient and their donor must be closely matched on a panel of genetic variants that affect how immune cells recognize threats. Without this matching, the donated cells are likely to either not implant properly or produce immune cells that attack the rest of the body’s healthy tissue.
Over 70% of patients don’t have matching family member donors
Finding an appropriate donor can be a major hurdle and 70% of people who need a bone marrow transplant do not have a matching donor in their family.
Despite over 44 million registered donors worldwide, the number of new and active donors is declining sharply.
Why This Matters
For many people with blood cancer, a stem cell transplant is their only hope. But not every patient can find a matching donor.
- Patients’ survival depends on younger, healthier matches
Young donors aged 16-30 have the best outcomes.
- Ethnic minorities face extreme difficulty finding matches
Genetic diversity in the registry is critically low.
- Every missed registration means another patient waiting
Thousands are waiting for matches right now.
By joining the UK stem cell register, you could be the match someone is desperately waiting for.
