Marrow celebrates 1,000 new city sign-ups

The city-based student volunteering group, made up of students from Sheffield’s two universities. works with blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan to help recruit healthy young donots on their bone marrow registers.

Anthony Nolan helps to save the lives of people with blood cancer, such as leukaemia, by matching them to people willing to donate their bone marrow, or

blood stem cells, for lifesaving transplants.

Society president, Niamh Hynes, said: “We want to say a big thank you to every single student and person of Sheffield who signed up to the register during one of our recent recruitment events. What’s amazing is that, out of this 1,000 new people recruited, we can expect 10 people to go on to provide life-saving stem cell donations.

“What many people don’t realise is how easy it is to join the register. All you have to do is fill out a simple form and take a cheek swab. If you are a match for someone, most people will donate in a straightforward outpatient procedure, similar to giving blood.”

Charlotte Cunliffe, marrow programme lead at Anthony Nolan, said: “It’s amazing what these Sheffield students have achieved - their efforts are invaluable for our work in delivering lifesaving transplants for people with blood cancer.

“1,000 sign-ups is no easy achievement, and we hope their great work continues.”

To join the bone marrow register, you must be aged between 16 and 30, weigh at least 50kg and be in good health.

Niamh added: “We especially encourage young men, as well as students from ethnic minority backgrounds, to join as they are underrepresented on the register.”

Marrow, which formed in 1997, is a UK-wide student volunteering network in over 50 universities. In the past 20 years, Marrow has recruited over 85,000 potential donors onto the Anthony Nolan bone marrow register. To date, of those recruited, 786 people have gone on to donate - and a potential 786 lives saved. Currently, one in four stem cell donors in the UK are recruited by Marrow.

Visit www.anthonynolan.org to find out more about the charity and the work it does.