Sign up and get involved with Marrow

People aged 16–30 can join our register. Each time someone needs a donor, we look through our database for a match.

We have over 800,000 people on the register at the moment.

Since the launch of our register in 1974, we have made over 20,000 stem cell transplants possible.

However, even with over half a million people on the register, we urgently need to increase the size and diversity of potential donors. One day, we hope to help everyone who needs a lifesaving transplant.

To join our register, you have to be between 16 and 30 and in good health. You’ll stay on our register until you’re 61.

You need to be fully committed to donating your blood stem cells or bone marrow if you come up as a match.

The first step to joining the register is filling in a form and then doing a cheeky swab. If you apply online we can send you a swab pack in the post, or you can come along to one of our recruitment events in your local area. You then stay on the register until you’re 61, and we’ll be in touch if you’re ever a potentially lifesaving match for someone.

If you have any questions further questions please email donor.support@anthonynolan.org

We’re particularly keen to recruit more young men to our register, as they're more likely to be chosen to donate.

We also need more people from minority ethnic backgrounds to sign up to help give everyone an equal chance of finding a matching donor.

Young men aged 16–30 make up only 18% of our register but provide over half of all donations. We need more young men to sign up as they're underrepresented - even though hospitals are much more likely to choose them to donate.

Of course! Your sexuality won’t stop you joining our register. You’ll be subject to the same rules and health checks as everyone else. Join today!

Someone in need of a transplant is most likely to find a match in a person with a similar genetic history. That often means someone from the same ethnic background.

People from minority ethnic backgrounds often have rarer tissue types which makes it harder to find matching donors. That means we need to recruit even more donors from minority ethnic backgrounds so they are overrepresented on the register.

This includes people from African, African-Caribbean, Asian, Chinese, Eastern European, Mediterranean and mixed race backgrounds.

To be a donor you have to give what’s called ‘informed consent’. As stem cell donation is voluntary and not of direct benefit to the donor, a parent/guardian can’t give consent on behalf of a minor.

Young people are most likely to be chosen to donate as they are less likely to have long-term health problems which might delay or prevent donation.

Our research shows that donors aged 16–30 provide better outcomes for patients, so we focus our time, energy and money on recruiting these potential donors. It costs £40 to recruit each potential donor.

The welfare of our donors is a top priority for us. It’s our responsibility to keep our donors fully informed and make sure they understand the commitment they’re making by joining our register.

To fulfil this responsibility, we only allow people to join if they can understand our literature and give their consent in English.

If potential donors don’t understand English, we can’t be sure they can give their informed consent if we ask them to donate. That would be a breach of our duty of care.

Don’t be disappointed – you can support us in lots of other ways.

It costs £40 to recruit each person to our register, so funds are vital. You could raise money for us, donate money to us or take part in a fundraising event.

You can also encourage others to join our register, especially if they’re young men.

No, it won’t cost you anything. It does cost us £40 to put each person on our register, though. And that’s why we continue to raise funds, so we can continue to grow our register.

If you’re a match and come to one of our collection centres in London, Oxford, Sheffield or Manchester to donate, we’ll pay all your expenses, including travel, hotel, food and loss of earnings.

We have changed the way we collect donor’s tissue type from taking blood samples, to taking spit samples, to now asking people to do a cheek swab to join the stem cell register.

Whichever method you sign up by, you’ll be on our register in exactly the same way and ready to potentially save someone's life. If you signed up before then there’s no need to sign up again.

They'll come back to Anthony Nolan and we find out your 'tissue type' in order to add your details to our register. Then every time someone needs a transplant, we'll compare their tissue type to yours - and to people on our register and registers across the world.

To find out more about how we work out your tissue type, head to The Science Behind Our Work.

Anthony Nolan, The British Bone Marrow Register (operated by NHS Blood & Transplant), The Welsh Bone Marrow Donor Registry (operated by the Welsh Blood Service) and DKMS UK all recruit donors in the UK.

All these organisations add their donors to a single UK registry, the Anthony Nolan and NHS Stem Cell Registry, which Anthony Nolan manages.

No, you only need to join one stem cell bone marrow register. All potential donors in the UK are added to a single registry managed by Anthony Nolan. Joining more than one would cause duplication and waste valuable resources.