Many of us know we can give blood, but it's also possible to donate the stuff that makes it: bone marrow.
Bone marrow is the soft, jelly-like tissue found in the hollow centres of certain bones. It's the home of ‘stem cells,’ which are the building blocks of blood. These building blocks are:
- Red cells, which carry oxygen.
- White cells, which fight infection.
- Platelets, which stop bleeding.
Stem cells produce all these cells, which are released into the bloodstream via the veins and thin tissue that surrounds the bone.
If a patient’s bone marrow can’t work properly because of a disease (such as leukaemia), a stem cell transplant is essential for survival.
In about 30% of cases, a matching donor can be found within the patient’s family. The other 70% of patients rely on matched volunteer donors, found through the British Bone Marrow Registry (BBMR).
The BBMR is a division of the National Blood Service and holds details of bone marrow donors from England, Scotland, North Wales and Northern Ireland. The BBMR is responsible for recruiting, testing and registering blood donors who volunteer to become bone marrow donors. It's also part of an international network, performing searches around the world to find suitable bone marrow donors.
Joining the register
To join the BBMR you must be aged between 18 and 44 and you must be a blood donor. You can join when you give blood; an extra sample will be taken so that your tissue type can be identified.
Once you've been approved, your details and tissue type will be put on to the BBMR's computerised, confidential register.
Patients and donors are matched by the white cells in their blood. If you're identified as a potential match, you'll be asked to supply a further blood sample for more extensive tissue typing. At this stage there is a one in 10 chance that you'll be selected.
If you're identified as the best possible match, you'll be invited to attend one of the blood centres for an explanation of procedures from a member of clinical staff.
The donation process
There are two ways of donating stem cells:
- You can donate the bone marrow itself. This involves removing stem cells from the hip bone using a needle and a syringe under general anaesthetic.
- You can also donate stem cells from circulating blood. For four days before the donation, a nurse will inject the donor with a drug that vastly increases the number of stem cells in the donor’s circulating blood. The donor is then connected to a cell separator machine, without the need for general anaesthetic. This machine collects the stem cells from the blood and returns the blood to the body through a vein in the other arm.
Bone marrow donations are collected in hospitals and stem cell collections are made at a number of National Blood Service Centres. The process is very safe but no medical procedure is without risk if a general anaesthetic is involved. Apart from some temporary discomfort in the bones, both procedures are relatively painless for the donors.
Who will I help?
Because of strict confidentiality rules, you won't be told who your bone marrow has helped. However, you can be confident that it will be used to do enormous good.
Hamzah Khaled, 20, became one of the country’s youngest bone marrow donors just a month after joining the register. Visit The British Bone Marrow Registry pages to read more about Hamzah, as well as those whose lives were saved thanks to a bone marrow donation.
