Press release -
Singapore’s Largest Celebration of Bone Marrow Donors Recognised as Heroes
Singapore, 30 January 2014: The Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP) brought together 34 Singaporeans from all walks of life with one thing in common – they have saved the life of a patient through donating their bone marrow. With a bone marrow transplant being the preferred treatment for blood diseases such as leukaemia and lymphoma, many lives have been saved through such an extraordinary act of volunteerism.
The BMDPCelebration of Heroes event saw Patron Mr K. Shanmugam, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Law, present awards to these remarkable individuals. Their altruistic donations provided one last chance of survival to patients who would have died without a transplant.
“Very few people can lay claim to saving the life of another in the spirit of altruism and generosity. In donating their stem cells, our donors have set an example for all Singaporeans to do the right thing whenever the opportunity arises,” shared Minister Shanmugam.
The Celebration of Heroes has entered the Book of Records for gathering the largest number of people who have saved a life through donating their bone marrow in one place in Singapore.
The BMDP manages Singapore’s only register of volunteer bone marrow donors and invites young people to come forward and join the register, making the generous commitment to help people in their hour of need if they are identified as a match.
Cancer survivor Dave Eng shared the impact of the life-saving bone marrow transplant he received 20 years ago when he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. Mr Eng said the donation not only saved his life but also allowed him to see his two young daughters grow up, spend valuable time with his parents and keep his family together.
Jane Prior, chief executive of the BMDP said the inaugural Celebration of Heroes event would kick off the next phase of the Programme’s expansion and encourage Singaporeans to give back to their community. The Bone Marrow Donor Programme has committed to recruit 50,000 new donors onto the volunteer bone marrow donor register within the next 3 years, which is timely with the celebration of Singapore’s 50th birthday.
“We can’t think of a better way for young people to embody the SG50 spirit of community and volunteerism than committing to help a fellow Singaporean in their hour of greatest need by providing a life-saving bone marrow donation,” shared Ms Prior.
“Growing the bone marrow donor register by 50,000 people will help the BMDP deliver on our promise to find a donor for every patient for whom a bone marrow transplant is a matter of life and death.”
The odds of finding a match for a patient are one in 20,000 within the same racial group. With low representation on the register of Singaporeans from the Malay and Indian communities, the BMDP is particularly looking for donors from the minorities to sign up order to increase the chances of finding a match for all patients in our multi-racial community.
Donors can find out more about being a donor and sign up at www.bmdp.org through requesting for a postal swab kit to be sent to them. Alternatively, the BMDP organises community drives on a regular basis or through visiting the office.
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Note to editors:
1.The BMDP currently has 48,000 donors on the register and there is a 1 in 20,000 chance of finding a donor match for patients with blood-related diseases like leukaemia and lymphoma.
2.Registering as a bone marrow donor only takes a couple of minutes and involves providing a DNA sample by cheek swab and providing some basic demographic information together with contact details in the event they are matched to a patient.
3.Donors are only called upon if they are matched to a patient with a life-threatening blood disease, at which point they undergo a full medical to ensure they are fit and healthy to donate.
4.There are two methods of donation: peripheral blood stem cell donation, which is similar to a blood donation and takes place as an outpatient procedure usually taking 5-7 hours (accounting for 9 out of 10 donations) and bone marrow donation which takes place in hospital under a general anaesthetic with collection of marrow from the pelvic bone.
5.In both methods of harvest, the donor may be tired for a few days but is fully back to normal within 4-6 weeks similar to making a blood donation.
Topics
- PR, Communication
Categories
- bone marrow donor programme
- bmdp
About the BMDP
The Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP) is a non-profit organisation responsible for building and managing Singapore’s only register of volunteer donors who are willing to donate their bone marrow to save the lives of patients with leukaemia and other blood diseases and who need a transplant to survive. The BMDP also provides a 365-day service to the hospitals to search the local register and, if necessary, extend this around the world in order to find a matching donor for their patients. So far almost 500 patients have been given a chance of survival through the work of the BMDP and the need grows every year as transplants become a routine treatment for these most common forms of cancer. For more information visit www.bmdp.org
- Under “Match For Life”, the BMDP recruits new volunteers onto Singapore’s only register of bone marrow donors. This entails public outreach and education into the various sectors including corporate, government and education; eventually leading to a one-to-one engagement to collect a tissue sample for HLA typing (Human Leukocyte Antigen).
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