Newark resident Ann-Marie Spence is recruiting more potential donors on to the bone marrow register in memory of her son, Joel, who sadly died of leukaemia in 2008.
Joel Picker Spence was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2005. Although a suitable bone marrow donor was eventually found for Joel, he was too poorly to have a transplant and he died before he reached his seventh birthday.
Ann-Marie says, ‘By the time we found a match for Joel, it was too late for him. We want to recruit more people onto the bone marrow register so that other families would not have a desperate struggle to find a suitable donor and that it is not too late for them. We started the ‘Join for Joel’ campaign so that more people know how easy it is to join the bone marrow register and that donation is usually a similar procedure to giving blood.’
Ann-Marie is working with Anthony Nolan to recruit more potential donors to the bone marrow register. So far, the ‘Join for Joel’ campaign has helped to recruit over 5,000 new potential donors to the bone marrow register and eight of these have gone on to donate their bone marrow and potentially save a life.
Jenner Mackay-James, regional recruitment manager at Anthony Nolan, says, ‘The ‘Join for Joel’ campaign has inspired thousands of people to join the register. We hope that Newark residents will support Ann-Marie’s campaign to recruit more bone marrow donors to the register and enable us to save more lives. We especially need more young men to join the register, as they make the best donors.’
Ann-Marie’s next recruitment event with Anthony Nolan will take place at Eastwood Centre Newark Hospital on Tuesday 2 April from 3pm-7pm.
Anyone aged 16–30 years old who wants to join the register will simply need to fill in a short application form and provide a saliva sample. If you cannot attend the event, you can join the register online or find out about other ways that you can help.