St.Gallen against leukaemia

20 March 2015. Every year, about 1,000 children and adults contract leukaemia or another life-threatening disease of the haematopoietic system. Many of them can be helped with a transplantation of blood stem cells. However, the search for suitable blood stem cell donors is often very difficult. The more people who register as donors, the greater the chance that a patient can be helped in good time.

Helping people suffering from blood cancer

HSG students have launched an initiative for the benefit of people suffering from blood cancer. In cooperation with Swiss Transfusion SRC, the initiators will conduct the campaign for the fifth time running. On Tuesday, 24 March 2015, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. they invite the general public to a typing campaign in the foyer of the Library Building.

Anyone between 18 and 55 who satisfies the general requirements for blood donation will have the possibility of registering themselves anonymously and free of charge in an international database for blood stem cells by means a saliva test. People who are not on site can get the information about blood stem cell donation, and register as a donor, online: www.sbsc.ch/registrierung.

Registered within a few minutes

Basically, every healthy person between 18 and 55 can become a donor provided they satisfy the relevant criteria, among them being at least 50kg in weight, no hepatitis C, no heart attack and no form of cancer.

Registration only takes a few minutes and is done on site. Participants use a cotton bud to take an oral mucosa swab for the purpose of tissue typing. The tissue type will then be stored anonymously in a worldwide database. The personal data will remain with Swiss Transfusion SRC, which will also contact the registered person if he or she could be a possible donor.

With the typing campaign, the “St.Gallen against leukaemia” initiative, together with the SHSG Student Union, support Swiss Transfusion SRC’s vision of finding a suitable donor for each and every patient. The event will be run for the fifth time.

Photo: DKMS / Kampagne «Gemeinsam gegen Leukämie»