Families and friends of Patients - Want to Help
Hi all,
It’s New Year’s Eve and resolutions will be coming to the forefront of our minds.
It often feels that as a carer, friend or family member that there is relatively little that you can do for your loved one going through their treatment. But, there are some easy things that can be done to help others in the same situation as your loved ones. Clearly, registering with Anthony Nolan as a potential donor is a massive help, but that is largely for the under 30’s .... lucky things!
But, we all know, or have seen, the vast quantities of blood products that our loved ones will have received in their treatment before and, particularly during and immediately after transplant. Nearly all of us (under 66) can be blood and platelet donors. That seems like a really effective, and easy, way to make a contribution to the treatment and care of our loved ones - something like 65% of platelet donations go to cancer patients.
So....when it comes to midnight tonight, let’s all try to make a commitment to become a donor of one kind or another, or, if you already are, to try and encourage another person to become a donor.
Happy new year,
Andrew
Comments
Hi Andrew and I totally agree with that sentiment.
For those of us that have gone through chemotherapy and transplants we can’t become blood donors (or organ donors I think either) but through our experience we know how important blood products are to those like us that need them to survive during treatment.
Whatever platform I use, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or otherwise, I try to promote the need for people to register with any of the stem cell registers and also to donate blood.
At work I was trying to arrange for a blood collection session to be run on site (we are building a new Hospital and have a workforce that will peak at 800 people). Unfortunately the blood transfusion service no longer run mobile clinics but were willing to do an awareness session, spending a day on site telling people their blood group and promoting blood donation. COVID sadly got in the way of that, but I hope to still arrange something in the future and am continuing to liaise with the service.
We can all do our bit to promote awareness of blood cancers and blood or organ donation. If each of us can encourage just one or two of our friends and families to do that bit extra it helps. Just keep the message going and fingers crossed more people will resolve to register and donate.
I hope you’re safe and well and had a good Christmas. Very best wishes for the New Year, when hopefully life will return to normal.
Regards,
Steve
Hi Steve and Andrew
I concur with you both. Such an important and invalueable contribution people can do to help. For me I survived by getting my transfusions, especially platelets.
I use the platforms I'm involved with to reiterate the importance. I know a few people that support blood donation but there could always be more especially rare types of blood.
Happy, Safe and Healthy New Year to everyone.
All the best
Michelle