Priti Patel signs up to Anthony Nolan Register

Yesterday (13 July 2010) Priti Patel MP pledged her support to patients needing lifesaving stem cell transplants by signing up as a donor on the Anthony Nolan register.

Anthony Nolan finds matches for leukaemia patients who need a lifesaving stem cell transplant (commonly known as a bone marrow transplant). Sadly at present, for every person the charity can help, there’s another for whom it can’t find match and who will sadly die without a transplant.

The MP for Witham said: “This is such an important thing to do. You could be the one match for a person who desperately needs a transplant. It is a very simple process to sign up and it is such a small effort when you could potentially save someone’s life.”

“There is a particular shortage of donors from Asian and black communities on the register. If you are in the right age range I urge you to go to the Anthony Nolan website to find out how to join.”

Joining the Anthony Nolan Register is easy: you just need to fill in a medical questionnaire and then give a small saliva sample. To sign up, you need to be between 18 and 40 and in good general health. You can request an application pack from the Anthony Nolan website at www.anthonynolan.org

There are over 400,000 people on the Anthony Nolan register but as there are so many possible tissue types, more donors are desperately needed to meet the needs of the 1400 people in the UK currently needing a transplant, and thousands more worldwide.

Photo: Priti Patel signs up to Anthony Nolan Register