Newcastle Marrow, student volunteering group that fights against blood cancer, invites all students to come to ‘Give a Spit’ event this Halloween to sign up to the stem cell register.
The group works with blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan and are looking to recruit young and healthy people under the age of thirty who would be willing to donate their stem cells or bone marrow.
Anthony Nolan charity is one of few in the country that helps to saves lives of people with blood cancers and disorders by matching them to potential donors - every year around 2000 people in the UK need a stem cell transplant from a stranger.
La’ali Imam-Gutierrez, student president of Newcastle Marrow, said: “It’s incredibly easy to be a potential lifesaver. It takes just 15 minutes to sign up to our register, by filling in a simple form and spitting in a tube. If you’re a match for someone the donation process is like giving blood. Kind of a no brainer! We’re excited to bust the scary myths around stem cell donation this Halloween.”
Currently the register is in need of young men as they are most likely to be chosen to donate but make up just only 15% of the register.
Also people from ethnic minorities as these are the most underrepresented in the register – only one in five of transplant recipients will get a perfect match if they are from a Black, Asian or ethnic minority background.
Newcastle Marrow volunteers will at the Students’ Union on Monday 31st October between 9am and 6pm, opposite Subway on level -1 of the building, dressed in their best spooky outfits and giving out plenty of freebies.
Signing people up for the registers is an expensive procedure (the charity pays about £60 for each person) so volunteers will also be holding a bake sale to raise funds to enable Anthony Nolan to sign more willing donors. If you’re not able to attend on Halloween, you can join the stem cell register online on Anthony Nolan’s website.
