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It is estimated that one in three people will get cancer  sometime during their life. Most of the time all we can offer is our sympathy and thoughts. Leukemia is one cancer where you could save a life... Leukemia’s a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow. It begins in the bone marrow where developing blood cells begin to multiply in an uncontrolled manner which then affects the bone marrows ability to make normal blood cells.
The abnormal blood cells do not perform their function of preventing and fighting infection. This is invariably fatal. Leukemia can be treated through a range of means, including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, a bone marrow or stem cell transplant.  How you can make a differenceA bone marrow transplant is the only chance of survival for many people with leukemia. Bone marrow provides a source of stem cells which are able to divide and produce new healthy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. In a bone marrow transplant, healthy bone marrow is taken from a donor and injected into the recipient. About a week before a bone marrow transplant, the patient’s cancerous bone marrow cells are destroyed through high dose chemotherapy/radiotherapy.
The healthy bone marrow cells are then injected into the patient. They find their way to the bone marrow and settle there. These then produce healthy blood cells which replace the cancerous cells killed by chemotherapy.  To save a life the process is simple. All you need is to is go along and provide a sample of blood and fill out a consent form. To find out your nearest New Zealand Blood Service call 0800 Give Blood or visit www.nzblood.co.nz If your tissue type matches someone needing a donor, you will be contacted to see if you still wish to proceed as a donor. Then another blood sample will be taken to confirm a match. Bone marrow can be collected in one of two ways.
1: Needle and syringe
Under general anesthetic, bone marrow is collected by needle and syringe from the pelvic hip bone. Recovery time is different between people, but you can go home the next day and resume normal daily activities within two to three days.
 2: Peripheral Blood Stem Cell (PBSC) DonationThis is a more common method of collection. Normally, there are only a few stem cells from bone marrow circulating in the blood stream. To increase the number of stem cells, four days before donation you are injected daily with a substance called G-CFS. The stem cells can be collected through a procedure called leukapheresis. A needle is inserted into a vein in your arm, blood passes into a machine which separates the blood cells and selectively removes stem cells. The rest of your blood is immediately returned to your body.  Reading this, you may think it all sounds a bit scary with needles and all. Will it hurt? Maybe a little. But not as much as it would hurt to lose someone you love. Only about one in a thousand people on the registry ever get called to make a donation. The bigger the registry, the greater chance that someone who is waiting will be able to find a match. Patients in particular need of donors are those of diverse ethnic background. So if you’re Maori, Pacific Island, Latino, Indian… any different mixture of race, your contribution to the registry could help someone out there who is having a tough time finding a donor. Even though there are over 10 million people on the world wide registry, there are still people waiting and hoping, currently unable to find a match. You could be the one the patient needs. If you’d like to make a difference, contact the New Zealand Bone Marrow Donor registry on 0800 800 256, or check out their web page www.nzblood.co.nz |
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