Support funding to continue the cheek swab registration method for bone marrow donors
Support funding to continue the cheek swab registration method for bone marrow donors
The issue
Sign this petition and add your voice to the campaign to increase funding so that swab registration for bone marrow donation can continue.
The Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry's (ABMDR) Strength to Give Campaign has been trialling online registration and cheek swab collections by mail, which has made it easier for people to join the Registry and has been better able to reach target groups. This is an internationally accepted, reliable and successful method for registering new donors, BUT the bad news is that they now have put a hold on the swab method of recruitment because they have run out of funding.
Background
Our family started an organisation called Australian Marrow Match (AMM) in August last year after my 22 year old nephew, Ned, who was diagnosed with leukaemia, was unable to find a bone marrow (stem cell) donor in Australia.
Many people who have a blood cancer or other types of blood disorders rely on having a bone marrow transplant as their chance for a cure. This means they need to find a match. The Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) is a register that people voluntarily join, so doctors can search for lifesaving stem cell (bone marrow) matches for cancer patients.
We discovered that the process to register as a donor was not easy or straightforward. Part of the difficulty was that it involved giving blood, therefore it excluded gay men, people who live a long way away from a donation centre as well as others who can't give blood for other reasons. We also found out that the need for life saving bone marrow donors is ever increasing; only 30% of those in need find a matching donor, the donor pool in Australia is small, predominantly female and shrinking, as donors over the age of 60 are retired, and it does not cater well for those of non European ethnicity. This means 85% of donations come from overseas which is costly, logistically challenging and downright embarrassing given our great country should be able to mobilise and use it's own resources. Never has this been more obvious as COVID-19 shut our borders.
One of our goals at Australian Marrow Match was to spread the word about the Strength to Give Campaign via social media and, along with other organisations, we were successful in helping the campaign reach a target of 5000 new donors aged between 18 - 35 years old in only 8 months. Imagine what could be achieved if the ABMDR got the funding they needed.
Urgent Request
Please support this campaign to get the required funding to ensure swabs can continue to be used to sign up to the bone marrow registry and consider writing to your local state and federal MPs to ask for them to add weight to our advocacy. We need to do this to ensure the ABMDR is strengthened and we can ensure the best possible outcomes for all individuals who rely on bone marrow transplants to save their lives.
The issue
Sign this petition and add your voice to the campaign to increase funding so that swab registration for bone marrow donation can continue.
The Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry's (ABMDR) Strength to Give Campaign has been trialling online registration and cheek swab collections by mail, which has made it easier for people to join the Registry and has been better able to reach target groups. This is an internationally accepted, reliable and successful method for registering new donors, BUT the bad news is that they now have put a hold on the swab method of recruitment because they have run out of funding.
Background
Our family started an organisation called Australian Marrow Match (AMM) in August last year after my 22 year old nephew, Ned, who was diagnosed with leukaemia, was unable to find a bone marrow (stem cell) donor in Australia.
Many people who have a blood cancer or other types of blood disorders rely on having a bone marrow transplant as their chance for a cure. This means they need to find a match. The Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) is a register that people voluntarily join, so doctors can search for lifesaving stem cell (bone marrow) matches for cancer patients.
We discovered that the process to register as a donor was not easy or straightforward. Part of the difficulty was that it involved giving blood, therefore it excluded gay men, people who live a long way away from a donation centre as well as others who can't give blood for other reasons. We also found out that the need for life saving bone marrow donors is ever increasing; only 30% of those in need find a matching donor, the donor pool in Australia is small, predominantly female and shrinking, as donors over the age of 60 are retired, and it does not cater well for those of non European ethnicity. This means 85% of donations come from overseas which is costly, logistically challenging and downright embarrassing given our great country should be able to mobilise and use it's own resources. Never has this been more obvious as COVID-19 shut our borders.
One of our goals at Australian Marrow Match was to spread the word about the Strength to Give Campaign via social media and, along with other organisations, we were successful in helping the campaign reach a target of 5000 new donors aged between 18 - 35 years old in only 8 months. Imagine what could be achieved if the ABMDR got the funding they needed.
Urgent Request
Please support this campaign to get the required funding to ensure swabs can continue to be used to sign up to the bone marrow registry and consider writing to your local state and federal MPs to ask for them to add weight to our advocacy. We need to do this to ensure the ABMDR is strengthened and we can ensure the best possible outcomes for all individuals who rely on bone marrow transplants to save their lives.
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Petition created on 24 April 2020