The SABMR exists to help find matching donors for patients needing a bone marrow transplant and who do not have a match within their own families.
Why do people need bone marrow transplants?
Every year, hundreds of South African children and adults with blood diseases such as leukaemia and bone marrow failure are considered for bone marrow transplantation for which a healthy donor is needed. In 30% of cases a suitable donor can be found within the patient's family, usually a brother or sister. For the other 70% of patients, their only hope is for the SABMR to find them a matched unrelated donor.
How does the SABMR find donors for patients?
Patients are not responsible for finding their own unrelated donor. Doctors contact the SABMR to search for donors both in the local and international databases. Currently the SABMR database is approaching 74 000 donors and there are nearly 30 million donors in registries worldwide. Access to this large pool of donors increases the chance of finding a match for a patient. However, finding a suitably matched unrelated donor is a complicated process that takes time, so it's a good idea for the search to be started as soon as possible. Of the patients transplanted to date, for approximately 25%, a South African donor was found; for the remaining patients a donor was found in another country.
Once a match has been found, what next?
The SABMR works with the transplant centre and the donor centre to schedule the donation. On the scheduled date, the marrow or blood cells are collected and transported from the collection centre to the transplant centre. The SABMR arranges all the logistics to ensure that the cells arrive on time. The precious cells are hand carried by trained, experienced individuals.
