Blood diseases can happen to anybody. They can also happen to you. Healthy life would not protect you against say… blood cancer. You might be simply unlucky.

Every 4 minutes somebody in the world is diagnosed with leukaemia - the blood cancer. The bone marrow transplant is the life saving procedure for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), Hodgkin lymphoma, Hurler syndrome, Krabbe disease (Globoid-Cell Leukodystrophy), metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD), multiple myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), severe aplastic anemia, severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), Sickle cell disease (SCD), Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS), and more than 70 other illnesses.

You probably do not know even half of these names… You would rather not to know any of these maladies.

But - whether you like it or not - you are the cure for them.

Only 25% of the patients can find the donor within their families. The rest has to look for the donor registered in the database Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide. All the national registers share this database.

Many people think that bone marrow donating is a scary and painful business, but it is not. The most prevalent method is almost as simple and just as harmless and near-painless as donating blood. The doctors probably will collect only stem cells from your blood. There is no danger to yourself in being bone marrow donor!

Think that one day you might need somebody’s bone marrow or stem cells… You might be the next who would be diagnosed with leukaemia.

You have to know that time is extremely important for people suffering from blood cancer. As a donor, you have to be ready when the patient needs you. Delays mean death. One particular point of attention is the harmful influence of tattoos and permanent makeup. Both procedures can inject viruses or bacteria into your organism which can be deadly dangerous for the patient. So if you wish to become a donor and save the life of your sister, friend, or just this poor guy who has been unlucky and got ill, then simply do not get a tattoo or permanent makeup. The doctors will have to wait half a year before they would let you become a bone marrow donor if you have any tattoo or y permanent makeup. And, once again, delays kill

If you already have tattoo or permanent makeup and, with this knowledge, you now feel uncomfortable because you have not been aware of these consequences, then do not despair, but please go to the nearest blood station and start your 6 months grace period on your way to become potential bone marrow donor. The sooner you do this, the sooner you can help save a life.

More information in selected countries:

GERMANY: DKMS Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei

FRANCE: Agence de la Biomédecine

ITALY: Registro Italiano Donatori di Midollo Osseo

SPAIN: Jose Carreras International Foundation

BELGIUM: Belgisch beenmergregister/Registre belge des donneurs de moelle osseuse

NETHERLANDS: Stichting Europdonor

SWITZERLAND: Blutspende SRK Schweiz/Transfusion CRS Suisse/Transfusione CRS Svizzeria

UK: British Bone Marrow Registry

USA: National Marrow Donor Program

 In English (links to all national registers):

World Marrow Donor Association

One more thing.

If you are not sure whether you can really make it and that you might refuse to come and give the stem cells in the very last moment - better do not register. If you do not respond to the call - the human being waiting for the promise of life will die. And you will have to live with this responsibility. But you can stay alive. While somebody whose life could have been easily saved would be already dead.