So you want to be Superman/woman? … How to register as Bone Marrow donor

As promised I’ve compiled ( better “stolen”) the links to the main Bone Marrow Donor registration agencies in several countries.

But before you click any of these links further down in this page, let me clarify some concepts about the Bone Marrow registration and donation :

1 – YOU CAN REALLY SAVE THAT LIFE !!

The chances of two people being a good match for Bone Marrow transplant are small, very small, so you may be one of the few people in the world who can save that patient. That is a unique gift!

There are nearly 25 Million registered donors globally, but still an important percentage of patients never find a suitable donor and many of them die.

The solution is to expand the registered donors base as fast as we can!

2 – REGISTRATION IS NOT DONE FOR ONE SPECIFIC PATIENT

Once you register as a potential donor, you become available for any compatible patient who may need it now or in the future. You cannot register to test compatibility with only one patient ( that is only done for close family members as first option and for example in my case we found we are not compatible)

3 – YOU MAY NEVER BE CALLED TO DONATE

According to bethematch.org, aprox 1 in 500 members go on to donate, but once they do they really save lives!

If you are found potentially compatible with a patient, you’ll be asked for specific consent to be tested in more detail and if fully compatible to go through the donation process.

4 – DONATING IS NOT A COMPLICATED OR PAINFUL PROCESS

For some reason, many people believe it’s a very painful extraction of marrow from the backbone. No, it’s not!

In over 70% of the cases the Stem Cells originated in your large bones are extracted directly from your arms veins, so it’s pretty similar to a Blood Transfusion

In the other 30%, specially for patients who are children, the doctor may recommend the extraction directly from your hip bone. Even if this were the case I’ve gone already three times through that experience with my Bone Marrow biopsies and I’ve to say it’s less painful than a tooth extraction 😉

For multinational donations, Bone Marrow cells can be extracted in the donors country and quickly transported to where the patient is being treated. So inconveniences are minimised ( but I’d very happy to offer California holidays to my Superman/woman donor 😉

5 – THERE ARE AGE AND HEALTH CONDITIONS LIMITS 

Depending of the countries and agencies, there are limits to become a donor. In general young donors are preferred ( 18-40 years aprox ) but some countries allow registrations up to 60 years old

Similarly, people with certain health conditions may not be able to register.

SO, JJ, WHERE CAN I / MY FAMILY / MY FRIENDS / ANYONE REGISTER ??

I’ve used the awesome work done for “Medula para Mateo” ( Marrow for Matthew) campaign which became very famous in Spain and other countries driven by the fight of Mateo and his family. The campaign has driven lots of visibility and registration across many countries.

Most popular countries by demand :

If any of you have extra links of information for these or other countries, please just share them into comments and I’ll add them to the post. Thanks !!

USA : 

The best agency and process to donate is at bethematch.org 

Very professional and well designed, they send a test kit to your home and just providing a mouth swab sample you can get registered. They require a donation from the donor to cover the costs of the analysis, which can sometimes be sponsored by companies and other entities.

SPAIN :  

Coordinated by the Fundacion Jose Carreras, Spain registers donors though a network of centers in most of the large cities. The steps and locations are described here :

http://www.fcarreras.org/es/como-hacerse-donante-de-medula-osea_45794

GERMANY 

Instructions and link to DKMS (Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei gemeinnützige Gesellschaft mbH) registrieren

http://marrowformathew.com/was-muss-man-machen-um-knochenmark-zu-spenden/

UK

Blood donors can become bone marrow donors at any National Health Service blood donation center. For detailed information, visit the website of the NHS British Bone Marrow Registry www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/bonemarrow/ or call: 0300 123 23 23

And below you can see many other countries and links, directly taken from “Medula para Mateo” website

Donar en España	Donate in Germany	Donar en Argentina
Donate in Brasil	Donate in Canadá	Donate in China
Donar en Colombia	Donate in Denmark	Donate in USA
Donate in France	Donate in Italy	Donate in Luxemburg
Donar en México	Donate in Portugal	Donate in UK
Donate in Czech Republic	Donate in Rusia