Meet the 39-year-old woman who donated her bone marrow to save the life of an elderly leukaemia patient

There are currently 123, 866 donors registered with the Bone Marrow Donor Programme ( BMDP ), as of June. Based on Singapore’s people size, the registration needs at least 350, 000 sponsors to increase the probability of finding a local benefactor for a local person.

Who is record: Singaporeans, permanent residents and long-stay immigrants aged 18 to 49 years old who are in great health. People with coronary artery disease, thalassaemia big, stroke, Hepatitis B and HIV, are never available to donate.

How to become a benefactor: Register at the BMDP site. You will receive a brush system and enrollment form via email. Finish the brush, complete the form, and mail the system back to BMDP in accordance with the instructions.

What happens after you file? The registry’s addition takes three to five times. Your swab is sent to the laboratory for tissue typing during this time to find out your particular human leukocyte antigen ( HLA ) and blood type. HLA may vary greatly depending on the individual’s immune answer. It is crucial.

When you may be a suit: When your title is in the registry, it will be there until you age out at 60 years or be medically unsuitable. Being matched to a person may get a year, 10 times, or not at all.

Who might be a fit for you: A person of comparable ethnicity. Based on the HLA tissue type, donors are matched with people. A patient’s best chance of finding a match is from a benefactor with the same cultural background because you can gain HLA signs from your relatives and through your race. However, the chances of native people finding a native donation is less than half for every tribal group – 40 per cent for Taiwanese, 20 per cent for Malays, and two per cent for Indians.

Malay and Indian patients are more difficult to find a match because Malays account for 8 % of the registry’s donors and Indians for 9 %, respectively.

To find out more about the Bone Marrow Donor Programme, go to www. bmdp. org