What Are Stem Cells

Stem cells are immature cells that have the ability to develop into many different cell types in the human body.

They produce all blood cells including red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. These stem cells are primarily located in the red bone marrow.

Stem cells are needed in the treatment of several diseases including blood cancers and abnormalities in blood cell production that require bone marrow transplantation.

Why We Need Stem Cell Donation

Stem cell/bone marrow transplantation is the ideal treatment for some diseases such as blood cancers, aplastic anaemia and thalassaemia. Even though there are several medical treatments available, they often do not provide a permanent cure.

Therefore, by becoming a Stem Cell Donor, you can bring a ray of hope to a patient in need, potentially giving them a second chance at life.

Importance of A Stem Cell Donor Registry

Only about 30% of the patients in need of a stem cell transplant as the life-saving treatment are able to find a matched family donor for Stem Cell Transplantation and the remaining 70% must find a matching donor outside of their family.

Transplants have to be abandoned due to the lack of donors/ inability to find donors in a timely manner.

With a Stem Cell Donor Registry, we can quickly identify a Matched Unrelated Donor (MUD) for the patients who do not have matched family donors.

How Stem Cells Are Collected

Stem cell collection can be done in two ways:

1. Stem cells are most often harvested in a method similar to platelet collection by connecting to a specialized machine after a course of injections.
2. Very rarely, stem cells are harvested from the red bone marrow of the hip bone under anaesthesia.

Eligibility To Be A Stem Cell Donor

Healthy individuals who fulfil the following basic requirements have the opportunity to donate stem cells:

• Should be between the ages 18 to 45 years
• Should be healthy and fulfil the relevant medical requirements
• Body weight should be 50 kg or above
• Haemoglobin level should be above 12.5 g/dL
• Should not have high-risk sexual behaviors.