Boots Hockey Club has teamed up with Nottingham Marrow to host an event on Saturday 17th November, which aims to recruit new potential donors to the Anthony Nolan stem cell register. The event will also aim to raise funds for Anthony Nolan through a cake sale.

Nottingham Marrow, a student-led volunteering project at the University of Nottingham in their 20th year, run donor recruitment events around the city and will be in the Boots HC clubhouse in Ladybay from 11.30-18.00.

Blood cancers affect 38,000 people every year in the UK, from children to the elderly. Common treatments are chemotherapy, radiotherapy and, in some cases, a stem cell or bone marrow transplant. Every 14 minutes, someone is diagnosed with blood cancer and around half of these people will need a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor.

This event has been organised by Gareth (Taff) and Ruth, stalwarts of Boots HC with Taff having joined in the mid to late ‘90s. Their youngest son Joshua is currently undergoing treatment for Leukaemia at QMC, and the family would like to promote awareness of stem cell donation. 

It takes less than 10 minutes to join the register. All that is required to sign up is for people to fill out a form, and provide a DNA sample via a painless cheek swab. Once on the register, potential donors will stay on until they’re 60 years old and could be called to donate their stem cells to a patient in need of a transplant at any time – about 1 in 100 people on the register go on to donate. Nottingham Marrow volunteers will be able to talk you through signing-up and donation on the day; only 10% of donations are made via the traditional bone marrow transplant, with 90% of donations made through PBSC (peripheral blood stem cell collection). This is a similar procedure to giving blood.

Anyone aged between 16-30 can sign up to the Anthony Nolan Register to potentially give someone in desperate need a second chance of life. The charity particularly wants to recruit young men aged 18-30 as they make up only 16% of our register, but they provide an astonishing 55% of all donations.

For those of you not in this age bracket, you can still get involved! Please promote the event to those outside of the club, as everyone is invited to come along. We will be hosting a cake sale to raise funds for Anthony Nolan; it costs about £40 to recruit a donor onto the stem cell register. So please bring a bake (or eat some cake) and show your support.

For info about Nottingham Marrow or Anthony Nolan: Pleasecontact Jesse Lewendon (President of Nottingham Marrow) on 07717175921 or at nottingham@ukmarrow.org

For info about Boots HC or this event (or to notify you’re bringing a cake), please contact Laura Mason (Club Facilities Secretary) on 07742171429 or lallymason21@gmail.com