Blood cancer charity’s new Herts & Essex hub launches Valentine’s appeal in Jackson Square to find the ‘perfect match’ for stem cell transplants
An international blood cancer charity has a new Herts and Essex hub in Bishop’s Stortford and held a Valentine’s themed event in Jackson Square to find donors who are the ‘perfect match’.
The town branch of DKMS was set up by Lesley Calder, who is five years in remission from an aggressive form of blood cancer diagnosed in 2019 when she was 54.
She was lucky that her sister Ann proved to be the perfect match for a stem cell transplant. Now Lesley, who lives in Bishop’s Gate, is using her experience to encourage people to register to become stem cell donors and potentially save a life.
A recruitment drive and awareness event in Jackson Square shopping centre on Saturday (Feb 8) gave people the chance to find out what’s involved with becoming a donor and to sign up to register. The Herts & Essex team recruited 34 potential new donors as people gave cheek swab samples to be sent off to a central database.
DKMS stands for Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei, which translates as German bone marrow donor centre. It was founded in Germany in 1991 and launched in the UK in 2013.
It is the biggest stem cell register in the UK, with over a million potential donors, and has helped to give more than 2,500 people a second chance at life.
More than 2,000 people a year in the UK need a blood stem cell transplant, but only 7% of the eligible population are registered as potential donors.
Said Lesley: “I was lucky enough to have a sister who was my match, but 70% of the time people usually have to look outside of their family to get a match.”
Her son Max, 28 a former student at Birchwood High School and Herts & Essex High School sixth form, signed up to DKMS and went on the register. At the end of 2023 he got a call saying he could be a match for someone.
“He donated for someone in America and has just passed his first year anniversary of being a donor,” said Lesley.
She decided to launch a volunteer hub in Stortford having been involved in campaigns to find donors once she was in remission.
“We’re working under the umbrella of DKMS and our purpose is to spread awareness about stem cell donation and get people to register.”
People who register to be a donor have their genetic markers fed into a worldwide database that is also accessible to the NHS and the Anthony Nolan Trust.
“So in our little local way, what you could do by being a donor is potentially save somebody’s life anywhere in the world, so it’s a huge thing you would be doing. We are trying to spread the word so that people know we exist.”
It is as easy as providing three cheek swabs to go onto the register. If a match is found, 90% of the time the donor donates stem cells which are extracted from their blood. The donor gives blood from one arm, the cells are removed and then the blood is transferred back into the donor via the other arm, a process that takes just a couple of hours.
In rarer cases, the donor may have to undergo an operation to remove stem cells directly from their bone marrow via a syringe injected into their hip.
Lesley said they were looking for more helpers to get involved with the hub, particularly somebody who could help with social media.
Her team includes Sawbridgeworth mother of two Katy Bovaird, who was given a second chance of life after receiving a stem cell transplant after developing acute myeloid leukaemia. She has since met her donor and the pair have become friends.
The charity also helped eight-year-old Bishop’s Stortford boy and All Saints CofE Primary School pupil Jacob Taylor, winner of the Child of Courage at the 2023 Indies Community Awards, who at just 19 months was diagnosed with a rare immune disorder and underwent his life-saving stem cell transplant in 2019.
Five years later, he met his donor, Lorna, a 50-year-old woman from Scotland, in an emotional event organised by DKMS and Jacob’s mum Emily is now part of the hub.
To find out more, visit the DKMS website.
