"St.Gallen versus leukaemia": Typification campaign at the HSG

29 November 2019. Every day children and adults in Switzerland fall ill with leukaemia or other life-threatening diseases of the circulatory system. Many of them can be helped by a blood stem cell transplant, but the search for a suitable donor is often very difficult since the tissue markers of patient and donor must be as close a match as possible. The more people who register as donors, the greater the chance that a patient can be helped in time.

Registered in a matter of minutes

To register as a donor, you need to be aged between 18 and 55 and in good physical health. The basic criteria for registration can be found here.

Registration takes just minutes and can be done directly on site. Using a cotton bud, a sample is taken from the lining of the donor’s mouth for the purposes of tissue typification. The tissue type is then pseudonymised and saved in the Swiss donor register, where it remains available to anyone seeking suitable donors via an international database of worldwide registers. Anyone who is identified as a potential donor will be asked whether they are willing to donate.

A donor for every patient

With the typification campaign, the "St.Gallen versus leukaemia" initiative is supporting the vision of the Blutspende SRK Schweiz, which hopes to see a suitable donor found for every patient. The event is already being held for the ninth time and was initially launched by students at the University of St.Gallen to help people suffering from cancers of the blood.

When and where?

Tuesday, 10 December 2019, 9.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m., University of St.Gallen (HSG), foyer at the entrance to the library (building 09). A map and directions can be found on the HSG website.

Online registration

Anyone who is unable to attend the student initiative "St.Gallen versus leukaemia" can find out about blood stem cell donation and register as a donor online: www.sbsc.ch/registrierung