What I've Been Doing: A cycle to and from Uni everyday, all winter, all weathers whilst wearing crazy colourful shorts and draw attention to #ColdThighsSavingLives and raise money for research and awareness about the simplicity of joining the Stem Cell register and saving the life of a person with blood Cancer.
In 2010, out of nowhere whilst out
snowboarding in France, I started feeling very tired and out of breath. I had
Leukaemia T-ALL, which turned into one of the worst cases in the country,
leading to many failed chemotherapy treatments and a hefty operation. My only hope: A Stem Cell transplant......well it worked and it's thanks to my doctors, family,
friends and Anthony Nolan.
So lets save some more people from that pest called Blood Cancer!
So, you may have heard of Anthony Nolan - the UK's leading charity dedicated to research, raising awareness and saving the lives of people with blood cancer through bone marrow transplants. Well, I and many other students in 48 universities across the country volunteer for a charity which runs on the behalf of Anthony Nolan called Marrow. It is a charity run by thousands of volunteers from over 50 universities all over the country.
We are dedicated to raising awareness, money and signing up people between
16-30 to the stem cell and bone marrow register.
But if you want to give even more, like perhaps another person life! Then you
can sign up to join the stem cell and bone marrow register.
AHHH isn't that really painful!?!? I hear you cry!
Well no, not really, technology has moved forward.
If you are aged between 16-30 and in good health, you can sign up and all you
have to do is fill out a form, agree to methods of donation and give us a spit
sample.
We can send you a spit kit in the post or you can come to one of our
recruitment drives - which I will be posting updates for under the hash-tag
#ColdThighsSaveLives.
Then when someone with blood cancer needs a lifesaving transplant, we search
the register and if a genetic match is found then in 9 out of 10 cases cells are extracted
similar to process of giving blood and in the other cases you undergo a general
anaesthetic and marrow is extracted from the hip, but you are left in no more
pain than a heavy gym workout, AND YOU COULD HAVE SAVED A LIFE!!!
For more info, visit this page:
http://www.anthonynolan.org/8-ways-you-could-save-life/donate-your-stem-cells
