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Leukaemia charity to host an urgent bone marrow and blood donation registration clinic
| Published: 12th March 2010 10:19 |
Are you the ONE? Be the ONE to make a difference today
ACLT charity calls out to Londoners to attend registration drive in support of
2 toddlers, 7th-Day Adventist Church member Tabo Chibfa and Nevaeh Green,
both diagnosed with life threatening leukaemia
Leading leukaemia charity the ACLT is to host an urgent bone marrow and
blood donation registration clinic at the:
Seventh Day Adventist Church,
78-80 Boundary Road,
Walthamstow, E17 8JU.
Saturday 20th March.
Time: 3.30pm till 7pm.
The Registration clinic is being held in support of Tabo Chibafa and Nevaeh Green.
4 year old Tabo was diagnosed with acute
myeloid leukaemia (AML) in July 2009. Sadly,
in January 2010 Tabo suffered a relapse of
the disease and now urgently needs a bone
marrow transplant to survive. Tabo's parents
are members of the Seventh Day Adventist
Church and are hoping that the church
congregation and members of the public will
support their son in finding his life saver.
The same can also be said of 2 year old
Nevaeh Green who was diagnosed with
acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL)
in January 2010. Her mother Charmaine
describes her daughter as a friendly, bubbly,
happy, independent and articulate little girl.
It has been a huge shock to both family and lose friends, something
they still haven't come to terms with, however they are praying that
Nevaeh will make a full recovery and go on to live a normal happy life.
Since 1996 the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT) has been
working with a wide range of health and social organisations to help
save the lives of thousands by supporting the recruitment of more ethnic
one marrow donors and blood donors. The most prominent alliance has
been between the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust and The Anthony
Nolan Trust.
Sadly, too many BME patients are not finding suitable matching donors
and this is the reality echoed by many BME leukaemia and blood related
cancer sufferers around the country, and yet the solution to overcoming
these incredible odds is surprisingly simple; more Black and Minority
Ethnics (BME) are needed to sign up to the Anthony Nolan Trust register
and the blood donation register.
Dr Richard de Lisser, 7th Day Adventist Church, Communication and
Stewardship Director of the South England Conference, has given a
statement as to why it is important for the 7th-Day Adventist Church
to be involved in this life saving initiative.
‘Hope always has its heroes', the more heroes' the better and the
greater the hope. As a Seventh Day Adventist Church we want to
make hope happen by encouraging our members to support ACLT
and become potential bone marrow donors and to give blood to
make hope happen now!'
The ACLT recruits more bone marrow and blood donors from the black
and ethnic minority community. The charity has been instrumental in
recruiting over 30,000 potential bone marrow black and ethnic minority
donors over the last 14 years on the UK's most successful bone marrow
register managed by the Anthony Nolan Trust. However, there are still
not enough black and minority ethnic donors out of a total of 404,000
people on the register.
In response to the persistent shortage of donors, the ACLT has set a
new target to double the yearly recruitment, and aims to recruit approx.
2,000 new black and ethnic minority donors through a new campaign
launched in Feb 2010. The hard hitting campaign will build on the
ACLT's existing ‘Heroes Wanted' Campaign and aims to inspire more
people to take action today. There is an urgent need for new donors
to register to increase the chance of matches for hundreds of patients
currently awaiting a transplant. For many, time is running out, because
the ACLT estimates that the odds of finding a suitable match for black
and ethnic minority bone marrow sufferers such as Jennifer Jones
Austin (African-American), Donna Benjamin (Caribbean), Seun
Adebiyi (Nigerian) and Jenny Wilkinson (Chinese) are around 1 in
100,000 in contrast to a best case estimate of a 1 in 5 chance if they
were white northern European.
Therefore the most powerful message that can emanate from this appeal
is that ‘It's never too late to be someone's hero an individual has the potential
to personally save a life. By attending an ACLT or Anthony Nolan donor
registration clinic you could potentially save the life of little Tabo, Nevaeh,
Donna, Jennifer, Seun, Jenny or one of the many thousands of other
patients who require bone marrow transplants around the world. So
if you are 18 - 49 years old and of African, African Caribbean, Mixed
Race and Ethnic Minority descent please find the time and register.
It could be the most important and rewarding thing you ever do in your
life by stepping forward and taking just half an hour out of your day to
attend a registration clinic on
Saturday 20th March.
Time: 3.30pm till 7pm at the Seventh Day Adventist Church,
78-80 Boundary Road, Walthamstow, E17 8JU.
Time: 3.30pm till 7pm.
Save a life, Be a Hero
You can Be the ONE to give ‘The Gift of Life'
Anyone looking for information about ACLT registration drives, on becoming
a bone marrow donor or about leukaemia should visit http://www.aclt.org/,
e-mail: info@aclt.org or call 0208 240 4480.
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