I had the pleasure of joining an online meeting with the family of 4-year-old local constituent, Veer Gudhka. Veer has been diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Fanconi Anaemia and now needs a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor. Members of Conservative Friends of India and representatives of two UK stem cell registries also attended to share their thoughts on how we can improve the current situation.
Did you know that only 60% of stem cell transplant recipients receive the best match. This drops dramatically to around 20% (one in five of transplant recipients) if you're from a Black, Asian or ethnic minority background. There are 1.9 million potential lifesavers on the UK aligned stem cell registry, but only 2% of people in the UK are registered as stem cell donors.
I was pleased to learn how easy it is to join a stem cell register, it’s simply a matter of swabbing the inside of your cheek at home, and putting the swab pack in the post! If someone is found to be a lifesaving match, over 90% of people donate their stem cells in much the same way as giving blood, without an operation. You just lie on a bed for up to five hours whilst stem cells are collected and red blood cells are then put back into your blood stream.
Anthony Nolan is one of the UK’s stem cell registries and they told me that 95 potential lifesavers joined their register from Harrow East in the last year, with a total of 1693 people now registered. Please do join a register today – it could mean a second chance of life for children like Veer, and that’s an amazing gift we could all have within us!
Anthony Nolan Stem Cell Register - People aged 16 to 30 and in good health can join the Anthony Nolan stem cell register online at http://www.anthonynolan.org/helpveernow.
DKMS UK Stem Cell Registry - Anyone between the ages of 17-55 and in general good health can become a potential blood stem cell donor at http://www.dkms.org.uk/veer.
