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Bone marrow registry gets boost from bank’s fund raising initiative

Bone marrow registry gets boost from bank’s fund raising initiative

The funds raised by local bank, will to be used to cover the tissue-typing cost involved in adding donors onto the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR).

Last week, Bank Windhoek’s wellness department facilitated the initiative, which saw employees country wide support the cause through the Sunflower Day 2017 fundraising initiative and wore TOPE’s (Tube of Hope) as headbands, masks, scarfs, caps and arms bands last week.

Marjolize Scholtz, Wellness Consultant at Bank Windhoek said during sessions at each branch, employees were informed about the need for Namibian blood stem cell donor and that numerous employees are now considering the idea of becoming blood stem cell donors.

“Through supporting this campaign, we hope that this will bring The Sunflower Fund’s dream of having a Registry with 100,000 diversified donors, so much closer to reality,” she added.

Scholtz said that a higher number on the registry, increases the chance of finding matching stem cell donors in order to undergo life-saving stem cell transplants.

“A blood stem cell transplant is a procedure to replace damaged or destroyed bone marrow with healthy bone marrow blood stem cells, therefore by being a donor, you can help save the lives of those in critical need of such transplants,” she encouraged.

She explained that there are only two Registries’ in the whole of Africa, one in Nigeria and the other in South Africa and by contributing they increase the number of donors listed on the national database.


 

About The Author

Mandisa Rasmeni

Mandisa Rasmeni has worked as reporter at the Economist for the past five years, first on the entertainment beat but now focussing more on community, social and health reporting. She is a born writer and she believes education is the greatest equalizer. She received her degree in Journalism at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) in June 2021. . She is the epitome of perseverance, having started as the newspaper's receptionist in 2013.