URGENT APPEAL FOR YOUNG MEN TO JOIN THE STEM CELL REGISTER

Anthony Nolan is the pioneering blood cancer charity that founded the world’s first stem cell register in 1974. Our story began with a patient appeal just like ’s, when Shirley Nolan was searching for a matching donor for her son, Anthony.

Although a match was never found for Anthony, with support from people like you, his legacy lives on. We’ve now facilitated over 19,400 transplants to give thousands of patients and their families a second chance of life.

But every year, another 2,000 patients start their search for a matching donor. We rely on generous financial support to grow our register of donors to find more matches and fund our lifesaving work.

Because we know that for patients, a transplant is just the beginning of a long journey to recovery. And that’s why we not only fund a dedicated Patient Services team, including 12 Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) around the country, we also fund groundbreaking research at the Anthony Nolan Research Institute to improve survival rates of stem cell transplants.

All of our work wouldn’t be possible without vital financial support. Because without you, there is no cure.

A stem cell (or bone marrow) transplant replaces damaged blood cells with healthy ones. It can be used to treat conditions affecting the blood cells, such as leukaemia and lymphoma.

When a patient is told they need a stem cell transplant, this is usually their last chance of survival. But they need to find a matching donor. If a patient has siblings, then they have a 25% chance of being the match they need. But for the other 75%, they rely on a total stranger not only being that perfect match, but being signed up to the register, ready and waiting to donate.

Anthony Nolan is the charity that searches both UK and international registers to find a matching donor for all UK patients. We get over 2,000 requests every year for patients in need.

If you’d like to find out more about stem cell transplants, as well as the support we offer to patients, visit anthonynolan.org/patients.

If you’re aged 31+, you can give patients the best possible chance of life by donating money to help to add the best possible donors to our stem cell register. We recruit people aged 16–30 to our stem cell register. Here’s why:

• It’s driven by science. Our research shows that donors aged 16–30 provide better outcomes for patients, so we focus our time, energy and money on recruiting these potential donors. It costs £40 to recruit each potential donor, so your support can help recruit those most likely to be a lifesaving match.
• It could save more lives. As we know doctors are more likely to choose younger donors, we need to use our limited resources wisely to fill our register with as many people aged 16–30 as possible, ready and waiting to save a life.
• Different UK registries have different joining criteria, but you only need to join one register - the Anthony Nolan and NHS Stem Cell Registry will search all registers when we're looking for a match, no matter where you sign up.