By Alexandra Smith
An appeal to recruit students to see if they can save cancer patients’ lives has been launched.
A stem cell drive is being held at De Montfort University on Tuesday next week (Jan 30) and Students’ Union president Ahtesham Mahmood is urging people to go along to register as potential blood stem cell or bone marrow donors.
Anthony Nolan is a charity that carries out incredible work helping those affected by blood cancer.
It recruits individuals who are willing to donate their blood stem cells or bone marrow if they are matched to people with blood cancer or blood disorders who are in need of life-saving transplants.
Ahtesham Mahmood, the President of the DMU Students’ UnionThe charity, which started in 1974, is now working with students from De Montfort, Leicester and Loughborough universities in a project called Leicestershire UNItes to find volunteers willing to join its register of potential donors.
Ahtesham, who works full time at the Students’ Union after gaining his Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Quality By Design following an undergraduate degree in Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Science, is working with the #DMUlocal team and the Rik Basra Leukaemia Campaign to organise next week’s stem cell drive.
It will be held at the Students’ Union building between 10am and 6pm on Tuesday where volunteers will be asked to have a cheek swab taken and fill out a form which will register them onto the charity’s database.
If there is a compatibility biodata match between the donor and anyone needing a blood stem cell or bone marrow transplant, the individual will be contacted by the hospital for further follow up tests to see if they could potentially save the patient’s life.
The event on Tuesday is not only open to students at DMU but also people from the wider community.
The University of Leicester and Loughborough University have already carried out their own donor drives.
