Be selfless, become a donor
Durban University of Technology students encourage the community to donate blood and become bone marrow donors.
STUDENTS at Durban University of Technology (DUT) are encouraging fellow students and the community to do something selfless during the month of June.
June is World Blood Donor Month and the students from DUT’s ML Sultan Campus, with the support of The Sunflower Fund and the South African National Blood Services, are encouraging others to embrace the characteristics of a Good Samaritan by becoming bone marrow stem cell donors. By educating healthy, caring and committed people they hope to increase the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR).
“Matching donors and patients requires both to have a similar DNA. It is very unlikely that a leukaemia patient, in need of a transplant, will find their donor match outside their own ethnic group and with the odds of finding a match being 1:100 000 it is vital that we increase the SABMR which currently only has around 66 000 donors,” said Stephanie Berry, PR and event specialist for the Sunflower Fund in Durban.
“I think the question that most strangers ask themselves is ‘if I stop to help, what will happen to me?’ The Good Samaritan would reply ‘if I don’t stop to help, what will happen to that person’ instead of saying what will happen to me if I do help?,” said Stephanie.
It costs The Sunflower Fund R2000 to test the blood of every person who joins the Registry. If you are able to donate towards the cost of the test it is much appreciated otherwise donors can ask to be sponsored in full by The Sunflower Fund.
Contact The Sunflower Fund toll free on 0800 12 10 82, weekdays between 8.30am and 4.30pm or visit www.sunflowerfund.org.za
