Seeking Bone Marrow Donation

[glrfcentral]

Hi,

 

I am hoping you can help me with a campaign I am part of to raise awareness about bone marrow donation by circulating the below to the members of your rowing club, particularly males aged 18-35.

 

One of my close friends and one of our Ireland's most decorated rowers, Paul [last name witheld], is battling Hodgkins Lymphoma. He is currently at a very progressed stage of the disease and his last chance at a cure is to find a match for Bone Marrow Donation and frankly we are working on borrowed time now.

 

 

His friends (myself included) have come together to set up a campaign with a website - www.marrowmatch.eu - and we are pushing on Twitter and Facebook to try and get people to learn more about what it is to register as a Bone Marrow Donor highlighting how straighforward it is, especially in the UK and that you could save a life so easily.

 

We have had success in Ireland but the infrastructure to get people registered is cumbersome with people having to register as part of a blood clinic. In the UK, through http://www.deleteblo...en/register-now and http://www.anthonyno...our-stem-cells(16-30 year olds) you can have the registration material sent to you at home, you take a swab or give some spit, seal it up and send it back in the freepost envelope. It's really that easy.

 

Paul is one of irelands most prolific rowers winning 17 championships, henley on two occasions including a course record and medals at the U-23's and World Student Games. Now 31 years-old, Paul was diagnosed in April 2012 and is currently undergoing his fourth regime of chemotherapy, having also had an autologous (own) stem-cell transplant and radiotherapy. His best, and possibly only chance to return to health, will be to find a match on the Global Registry, the pool from which all bone marrow donations are drawn. A match can be made anywhere in the world and the process is anonymous.

 

The reality is not what most people think. The general perception is a gruesome spinal invasion and much pain but in reality, nearly 90% of people donate their stem cells quickly and easily in a process similar to giving blood, called peripheral blood stem cell collection. The other 10% donate through bone marrow, where they give cells from the bone marrow in their pelvis.

 

We have had a lot of support from many, Celebrities, Tour de France Winners, Astronauts, Miss Worlds, International Rugby and of course the rowing community especially GB Internationals and ex-internationals including: Pinsent, Helen Glover, Triggs-Hodge and Chris Bartley. We have also had great support from the international rowing community including The Kiwi Pair, Xeno Mueller, Olaf Tufte and Emma Twigg amongst many others. You can see some of our media coverage so far at www.marrowmatch.eu/media-coverage/

 

If you could circulate this message to your members to spread the word we would be unbelievably thankful, our aim is to raise awareness and we need help in this. We are particularly looking to reach males aged 18-35 as these are the highest chance of a match.

 

Please let me know if you have any queries or you can contact marrowmatch@outlook.eu. We also have a facebook page /marrowmatch1 and a twitter @MarrowmatchIRL which are available for your queries.

 

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Regards,

 

Bryan

 

Tel: +44-(0)-7999-337-190

Email: bryanocarroll@gmail.com