A BONE marrow specialist says donating bone marrow stem cells is an easy and fast process.
Shelley Windell from The Sunflower Fund dismisses rumours that if a person donates bone marrow stem cells, pieces of bones are removed.
The Sunflower Fund is an organisation that educates and recruits a viable source of well-informed potential bone marrow stem cell donors who can register with the fund.
“Donors must, in general, be in good health. Most importantly, donors must be committed to help others,” Windell says, adding that the biggest challenges the fund faces is that in Southern Africa and Africa in general, it is hard to find donors because of cultural beliefs.
“There is a desperate need for more donors of all ethnic groups. Donor matches depend on tissue types and not blood types. It is therefore important that people of all races register as donors, so that all patients have the opportunity of finding a life-saving donor match,” Windell says.
She also said if a potential donor is a match, they will be contacted and that the fund is also trying to debunk the myths around the bone marrow stem donating process.
“You will hear people say that a donation is dangerous and weakens the donor, but that is not the case. On the contrary, it is very easy. Blood is drawn from one arm and filtered through the cell separator machine.
“The bone marrow stem cells are collected from your blood into a bag. Then the rest of your blood is returned through your other arm back to your body,” Windell explains, adding that the process only takes four to six hours.
*committed to helping people
*between 18 and 45 years old
*in general good health (not at risk of contracting hepatitis or other sexually transmitted diseases, over 50kg and with a healthy BMI.)
