By Amar Jethi
NHSF (UK) PR Team
Aneesa is an 18 year old, bright, bubbly Asian girl from Birmingham, who enjoys seeing her friends and spending time with her family. Unlike most other 18 year old girls, Aneesa has a serious blood disorder called aplastic anaemia.
This blood disorder affects her daily life and is so severe that her only chance of a cure is a bone marrow transplant from an Asian person. Despite a worldwide search, no suitable donor for Aneesa has been found.
Annesa is not the only person who needs a bone marrow transplant. There are currently 1,700 people in the UK waiting for a suitable donor and due to the lack of donors on the register, people die waiting for a match.
Her father Manzoor said, “Aneesa, my 18 year old daughter, needs a bone marrow transplant to save her life. Things don’t get much more difficult than this. Asians have a reputation for having large community networks and it’s at times of difficulties that we need to get together and encourage as many of us as possible to join the Anthony Nolan register.”
A patient from white northern European background has a 90% chance of finding a suitable donor. However, these odds fall to just 40% for someone from an Asian background.
This is why blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan run a register to match people in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant to potential donors. Anthony Nolan has launched a campaign to “Reach the Six Percent” of Britain who are Asian. National Hindu Students’ Forum (NHSF (UK)) is supporting this campaign to increase the awareness of this issue amongst the British Asian population, and encourage more Asian donors onto the register.
NHSF (UK) has teamed up with Anthony Nolan and local student Marrow groups to recruit more Asian people to the bone marrow register. So far, they have signed up hundreds of potential donors at sports competitions, conferences, religious events and even in student unions!
But it is not enough. Now NHSF (UK) wants to encourage even more people to sign up!
You can help by joining the bone marrow register. If you are between 16 and 30 and are fit and healthy, join the register now. Joining the register involves providing a saliva sample and in 90% of cases, bone marrow donation is a similar procedure to giving blood.
To have the chance to save the life of someone like Aneesa, please give some thought to joining the bone marrow register today.
To sign up to the register, and find out more about the donation process, visit www.anthonynolan.org. Email amar.jethi@nhsf.org.uk for more information.