The Turkish Women’s Philanthropic Association of England (TWPA) held a blood donation register event on Friday 6th October
The event was held at the headquarters in north London, from 4-8 pm, throughout the event members of the community attended.
Taking a couple of minutes to go through a number of health questions to work out if they were eligible to make a donation, once this was established those who were able to fill out a quick form and then made a donation by giving a salver swab.
The swab is then taken and processed into the DKMS donation register. The swabs are then checked to see if a match has been found with the currently in need or will be alerted when a match is made in the future.
DKMS communications manager Deborah Hyde who attended the event previously stated “Just 3% of the UK’s population are registered with DKMS as potential donors – and only a tiny proportion of these are from minority ethnic communities. We are committed to working with organisations like the TWPA to change this.”
DKMS is the biggest stem cell register in the UK. With over 950,000 blood stem cell donors registered to date. Over 2,000 people each year in the UK are in need of a blood stem cell transplant.
Around 90% of all donations are made through peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC), similar to blood donation. Blood is passed through a machine that isolates and collects the stem cells. This is an outpatient procedure that is usually completed in around four hours. In just 10% of cases, donors are bone marrow donations.
If you would like to register to become a donor, visit online at dkms.org.uk/register and you can receive a free kit.
