Marrow

Who we are  

We’re Marrow. And we’re a pretty special bunch of students.

We volunteer our time, energy, enthusiasm and love in 48 universities across the UK (plus others abroad) – all on behalf of Anthony Nolan, the UK’s leading blood cancer charity. Find out more about what Anthony Nolan does here.

What we do

• We raise lifesaving awareness of stem cell and bone marrow donation in our universities and local communities.

• We sign up students and people aged 16-30 to the Anthony Nolan stem cell and bone marrow donor register.

• We raise vital funds to support Anthony Nolan’s work.

What we’ve already achieved

• We’ve signed up over 70,000 people to the Anthony Nolan register, and we do more every year – in 2013/2014 alone, Leeds Marrow signed up more than 2,300 students.

• 1 in 100 people who we’ve signed up to the Anthony Nolan register go on to donate – much higher than average.

• 28% of all Anthony Nolan stem cell donations are the result of Marrow’s work.

• We’ve raised a ton of money – in 2013/2014, Newcastle Marrow raised more than £30,000 with a Coast-to-Coast bike ride.

Get involved

If you're a student, find your local Marrow group and get involved! You can also set up your own group, find out more about volunteering with Marrow, and support your local Marrow group.

How it all began

In 1997, James Kustow, a student at Nottingham University, was having dinner with some friends when he received a shocking call from his mother. A childhood friend of his, Karen, had been diagnosed with leukaemia and needed a bone marrow transplant to survive.

Banding together with his friends, James organised a recruitment event on campus to try and get more potential bone marrow donors to join the Anthony Nolan register.

The event was a great success – and James and his fellow volunteers decided to put together a team to run regular recruitment drives and raise awareness for years to come. They called it Marrow.

Sadly, Karen relapsed after her transplant and passed away four months later – but her legacy lives on in the Marrow groups which were set up to help her and many more people like her.

Contact us

Questions? Ideas? Get in touch with us via email at marrow@anthonynolan.org, or drop us a message on Facebook or Twitter.