A Kingsclere firefighter has vowed to put at least 500 potential donors on the bone marrow register after holding an event in the town last month.
John Taylor, Crew Manager at Kingsclere Fire Station has recently been diagnosed with leukaemia and a donor recruitment session was held in Basingstoke on Tuesday, June 22.A steady stream of potential donors visited Basingstoke Fire Station to sign up and the event has been hailed as a great success.
John said: “My mission is to use my illness as a trigger to raise awareness for potential donors. On the first search of the international bone marrow donor register I was personally matched with 500 potential donors, so my aim is to put at least another 500 on the register.”
Karen Archer, from The Anthony Nolan Trust, said: “I was contacted by one of our volunteers who is a personal friend of John who’s role is participating in the education programme for teenagers. She contacted me to work with John to use his story to raise awareness of potential bone marrow donors. As 70% of patients who need a transplant wont find a matching donor within their families publicity of the register and encouraging more donors is crucial.”
Group Manager Dave Norgate, at Basingstoke Fire and Rescue Service, added: “I consider the event a great success. We had members of the public arrive with an interest to register even before the publicised start time and there was a constant flow of people coming in.The fire service is all about reducing risk and saving lives and this is a different approach whilst we work with The Anthony Nolan Trust to raise awareness for this charity.”
For more information about The Anthony Nolan Trust visit www.anthonynolan.org.uk
