To ask you to register as a blood stem cell donor if you can?

[SinkGirl]

Had an email from DKMS saying they urgently need donors especially right now as many people with blood cancer are having treatments delayed.

I thought you could only register if you were young but that’s not the case. Testing is done via mouth swab in a home test kit which you just pop in the postbox on your daily walk.

There are some exclusions but I have some health issues and on medication but I am still able to donate so it’s worth checking.

Link to get a test kit is here:
www.dkms.org.uk/en/register-now?em

Thanks cin.

That what I thought but wasn't entirely sure.

I too have a blood cancer, just waiting to hear if my chemo has worked, if not I may need a transplant. thank you to everybody for registering.

Can’t as I have Thyroid antibodies :(

Bumping again.
This is so important.

I’m on the Anthony Nolan register

I have a few questions that I wonder if you guys can help with:

What is the process of donating stem cells? (As in, what is the actual donating experience like, not the signing up process.)

How regularly do you donate?

How do you physically feel after donating? (Do you feel like you have to recover?)

You donate only when a recipient is matched to you. So perhaps never. They do further testing when there is a potential match, and explain the donation process the.

(I'm afraid I don't know what the process is like)

You have to be age 17-55 so sadly I’m too old, but I’ll try and share it on my Facebook page.

The process is a bit like a lengthy blood donation. Needles in both arms, blood removed from arm 1, whizzed through a specialist machine to take out the stem cells they want and the rest given back to you through arm 2. Around 3 hours lying on a bed watching the telly with a nurse to look after your every whim!

You may have to have GCSF injections for 5 days prior to donation to increase the number of stem cells circulating in the blood, which can cause some temporary aching in the bones.

Easy peasy. Very rarely do they take them from the pelvis any more.

Already done and have tried to encourage others to do the same.

Thank you @Ethelswith and @FuzzyPuffling I think I’ll check it out.