Bone Marrow Donation

07 September, 2009

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Voice 1
Thank you for joining us for todays Spotlight program. Im Ruby Jones.

Voice 2
And Im Ryan Geertsma. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

Voice 1
Imagine you are 25 years old, but you have just one year to live. What would you do? Adrian Sudbury is a young man from the United Kingdom. Just a year and a half ago, Adrian had thick brown hair and a healthy, strong body. Today, Adrian has no hair and his body is weak. Doctors have now told him he has only a few months or even weeks to live.

Voice 2
This news is hard for Adrian, but it is not completely unexpected. In 2006 doctors told Adrian that he had two kinds of leukaemia. Together these two kinds of blood cancer are very deadly.

Voice 1
Adrian needed chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is a treatment that uses strong drugs to kill cancer cells. However, the strong drugs also kill many of the patients good cells. In particular, they kill the patients "bone marrow stem cells".

Voice 2
Bone marrow is the soft substance inside a bone. It contains many "stem cells". These "stem cells" create the bodys blood cells -so people need good stem cells to make healthy blood. In patients like Adrian, doctors must replace the bone marrow stem cells that the chemotherapy destroys. The new cells often come from a donor - a person willing to give some of their stem cells. The whole process is called a Bone Marrow Transplant. It is not an easy process for sick patients like Adrian. It is often the only medical hope. But it does not always provide a cure.

Voice 1
Sadly, Adrians bone marrow transplant did not cure him completely. However, it did give him another year of life. After the treatment, Adrian had many more good blood cells. He was able to travel. He continued working as a writer. And he started a blog - his own website about his life.

Voice 2
During this year, Adrian also learned a lot more about bone marrow transplants. He learned that many people in the world need bone marrow transplants. However, most people waiting for bone marrow transplants cannot find donors. Adrian decided it was important to teach everyone about the need for bone marrow donation. And he is spending the rest of his life doing just that. Adrian says:

Voice 3
I want to make a lasting change by teaching people. I am going to try to do what I can... The problem is that people think bone marrow donation is some horrible process. I want to show as many people as possible that it is not like that.

Voice 1
One problem is in the name of the treatment bone marrow transplant. The name makes people think of doctors taking stem cells from right inside the bone of the donor. Years ago, that was the only method they had, but things are different today.

Voice 2
Today, doctors usually get the stem cells from the donors blood. They do this through a process called apheresis. They use a needle to take blood from the donors arm. The blood passes through a machine that separates the stem cells from the rest of the blood. The rest of the blood returns into the donors body. The stem cells are then given to the patient who needs them.

Voice 1
The simple act of donating blood cells can save lives. But there are not enough donors. Not just any donor can give cells to any patient. A donors blood cells have to match the patients cells. They need to be very similar to a patients or the patients body will reject them. This can make finding a donor for a patient very difficult.

Voice 2
Many countries have created "registries". Registries are lists of bone marrow stem cell donors. These registries are very helpful to patients who need bone marrow transplants. Their doctors can look through the registries to find donors.

Voice 1

However, finding a matching donor is still hard. To be a good match, the donor and patient need to be genetically similar. Some patients find a donor in their own family. But most others need to find matching donors among people of their own ethnic group. A big problem is that most registry donors are from Western European ethnic groups. It is very difficult for people of other ethnic groups to find donors. And it is even more difficult for people of mixed ethnic history.

Voice 2
No country or ethnic group has enough donors. Many countries are creating wonderful bone marrow transplant programs. They are building centres, training doctors and saving lives. But they still need local donors.

Voice 1
For example, Dr. Kumar is an expert in bone marrow transplants from New Delhi, India. He explains how American and European registries are of limited use in India. Most donors in these registries are white people - Caucasians. He says,

Voice 4
It is difficult to find a match for Asians in many of the established registries. These registries are from North America or Europe. They contain mostly Caucasians. But Caucasians and Asians have different genes.

Voice 2
49 countries now have registries. However, many of the registries are very small. People of every ethnic group in every country must become donors. This is the only way all bone marrow transplant patients will have an equal chance of finding a donor. People who become registered donors will help the people of their country. However, they may also help people far away. That is because local registries are now connected through an international registry program.

Voice 1
Adrian Sudbury is using the rest of his life to encourage people to join a bone marrow transplant registry. Spotlight would like to help by giving a few facts about being a donor:

Voice 5
Organ donors are often dead people, but bone marrow stem cell donors are living people, like us, like you.

Voice 6
People who are willing to be donors put their names on a list, or registry.

Voice 7
Registries need people from all ethnic groups, but especially nonwhites.

Voice 5
Only a small percentage of people who put their name in a registry are ever asked to donate. This is because matching is difficult.

Voice 6
People on the registry list can change their mind and say No.

Voice 7
Most donors do not in fact donate bone marrow. Instead they donate stem cells from their blood.

Voice 5
The best age for donors is eighteen to forty years, but people can still donate up to the age of sixty.

Voice 2
Imagine. Could you help save a life of someone needing bone marrow stem cells? Could your joining a registry help someone near to you or even someone across the world? Is there a registry where you live?

Voice 1
You will find a link to a list of registries on the script page of this program on the Spotlight website radio.english.net.

Voice 2
The writer and producer of this program was Robin Basselin. The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted for this program. Computer users can visit our website at