Giving marrow is ‘virtually painless’

9:50am Sunday 6th July 2008

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A BONE marrow donor who recently overcame the rare odds to be matched with a leukaemia sufferer wants to let people who would like to save a life just how easy it can be.

Mark Appleton, a science teacher at Mostyn House School had been on the Anthony Nolan donor list for seven years and recently went through the procedure to give bone marrow.

He said: “People still have the opinion that donating bone marrow is through the painful method of surgical extraction. This can still be the case, but only in rare circumstances.

“The preferred method is through a series of small injections given over the course of a week by a visiting nurse, that can be carried out at your place of work, or in my case a nurse came into the school during lunch with afternoon lessons resuming as normal.

“This was followed by an expenses paid trip to London with a companion for a morning blood transfusion, which is a procedure not unlike giving blood, which millions of people do every day.

“It is virtually painless,” said Mark “and you can be out and about an hour later with no noticeable side effects.”

Every year thousands of children and adults with fatal bone marrow diseases, like leukaemia, and aplastic anaemia reach a stage when their only hope of survival is a blood stem cell transplant from a donor who shares the same tissue type.

Although family members, mainly siblings may offer the best match, unfortunately 70% of patients do not have a suitable sibling match and are, therefore, reliant on an unrelated donor to offer them the chance of life.

Information on the Anthony Nolan trust and its register can be found at www.anthonynolan.org.uk/donating