Bandanas create donor awareness
Olivedale staff members looked colourful wearing their bandanas but there was a serious reason to it.
Netcare Olivedale Hospital staff members wore bandanas in aid of the Sunflower Foundation on 11 October.
This was in the spirit of National Bandana Day on 12 October. The bandanas were on sale at R25 each at the hospital.
Hospital marketing officer Deborah Sieff said the initiative was to raise funds for the Sunflower Foundation and to obtain financial support and increase bone marrow stem-cell donors in South Africa.
Currently the chances of finding a suitable donor is one in 100 000. The Sunflower Foundation aims to educate and recruit well-informed potential bone marrow stem-cell donors who are ethnically diverse, in an effort to save the lives of those needing a transplant. It strives to maintain the associated donor records of the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR).
The foundation raises funds nationally.
It works towards increasing the SABMR and has played a major role in enabling the SABMR to expand dramatically from 1 200 to over 65 500 donors in the past 9 years.
