On Monday 3rd November a group of our lovely society members came together with the Anthony Nolan Trust to help ARU students and staff become potential lifesavers. Although many people may have heard of the Trust, others don't know about the charity that matches people in need of life-saving bone marrow transplants with those willing to donate some of their own.

That's where we came in. The Child Nursing Society spread the word about:

1. how easy it is to join the register - just fill out a form and spit in a pot (this is what matches up donors to recipients),
2. how the donation process is just like a cross between dialysis and an extended blood donation session, not any more painful (blood with the stem cells goes from the donor's arm into a machine, the stem cells are filtered off and then the blood is returned back into the donor's other arm),
3. just how important it is that people sign up to the register (unfortunately only 30% of people are a match with a family member because the tissue matching is so specific, due to this the other 70% of people have to rely upon a wonderful stranger's donation).

The society obviously did a great job at sharing this information because over the course of the day, we had added 29 people to the register and planted the idea of donating in a lot more people's minds on campus.

The cause is particularly pertinent to us as Child Nursing Students because bone marrow transplants are particularly used in Leukaemia patients where chemotherapy hasn't been successful; for children, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia is the most common type of cancer, with 1 child in every 2,000 developing it.

If we didn't manage to speak to you on Monday and you want to sign up to the register to be a potential lifesaver, you can apply online at:

http://www.anthonynolan.org/node/1815

(You must be under 30 years old and in good health to join up)