All we want for Christmas is the amazing gift of life
Funds raised through this SMS campaign will contribute to creating awareness around the need for stem cell donors and allow The Sunflower Fund to pay for the test costs of people wishing to join the national registry.
ROBBIE Eddles and Neli Mthembu have one thing in common.
Both are relying on the kindness of strangers to give them the amazing gift of life.
When asked what their wishes were for Christmas, they responded: “Please become a registered donor. It only takes five minutes of your time and a small blood sample to register as a donor and you may be the person who could save someone’s life. You don’t even have to know the patient to sign up. All we want is for potential donors to share a little bit of their time to give leukaemia patients like us the opportunity to create a lifetime of new memories.”
Sharleigh Wilken received her life-saving bone marrow stem cell transplant on 1 October 2014. Sharleigh’s message to the public is: “Miracles do happen and one never knows how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have”.
This festive season, The Sunflower Fund is running an SMS campaign, urging all South Africans to spare a thought and take the time to SMS “LIFE” to 40555 to donate R20 to The Sunflower Fund and help to ‘Share a little, save a life’.
SMSes are charged at R20 and free SMSes do not apply. Revenue paid to the charity is subject to network operator fees and administration fees.
Funds raised through this SMS campaign will contribute to creating awareness around the need for stem cell donors and allow The Sunflower Fund to pay for the test costs of people wishing to join the national registry.
The Sunflower Fund is the only organisation to build the South African Bone Marrow Registry. It only takes two test tubes of blood to become a donor and if you are a successful match, only additional white blood cells are removed and donated to the patient. There is no surgery involved. It costs The Sunflower Fund R2,000 to tissue type each blood sample to the required level which is why fundraising is as important as recruiting healthy, committed and caring donors.
The chances of finding a donor match are 1:100 000 within your ethnic group so the more donors on the registry, the more hope a patient has of finding their life-saving donor match. The Sunflower Fund’s toll free number 0800-12-10-82 is closed between 14 December and 11 January 2016. If you are interested in becoming a donor for any patient with leukaemia or a life-threatening blood disorder, contact The Sunflower Fund in the New Year. For more information on becoming a donor visit www.sunflowerfund.org.za
The Fund thanks all the corporate sponsors and to those who attended an event, sponsored a prize, became a donor or participated in the Miles4Marrow campaign.
Should you wish to make a much needed financial donation to The Sunflower Fund, reference it as ‘DBN donation’:
- The Sunflower Fund,
- ABSA Bank Tokai,
- account number 405 183 4719,
- branch code 632005
