Marrow

Thousands of people every year are affected by leukaemia and other disease of bone marrow. Blood stem cell transplant may be their only cure, but unfortunately, only 30% of patients find a suitable related match. When a family member cannot provide a match, doctors must turn to organisations like the Anthony Nolan Trust who maintain a register of people who are willing to donate their stem cells.

Marrow is a volunteer student organisation which helps to arrange donor recruitment clinics in universities, and raises charitable funds to run these events.

"Our son’s life was saved by someone who just went and signed up. One day, there wasn’t a match in the world – the next day, there was

Marrow began in 1998, and works in association with the UK’s largest national bone marrow register, The Anthony Nolan Trust (ANT) charity. The ANT are recognised by the UK government and the World Health Organisation (WHO) as part of the international bone marrow and stem cell register.

Donor recruitment clinics are entirely student run; from welcoming others to counselling potential donors and taking their blood.

As students are young, healthy and represent a broad cross section of ethnicity they are the perfect potential bone marrow donors and so it is Marrow’s ultimate aim to provide every student with the opportunity to join the bone marrow register.

Marrow holds annual Regional and National AGMs. These are opportunities for the whole network to meet up, along with representatives with the ANT in order to discuss current recruitment policy and share best practice. Regional AGMs allow local groups to meet up and work together on fundraising and training issues.

Fundraising is a major part of what Marrow groups do in supporting the work of the ANT. It cost €135 to maintain a donor on the bone marrow donor register. As well as local events such as bake sales and bag packing, groups around the country have worked together to hold highly successful ‘Battle of the Band’ events, charity cycling (78 miles!) and running events (13 miles!). Last year Marrow fundraising added up to £75,000!

Marrow's International position is growing since it became a transnational project. Groups are currently running in UK, Netherlands, France, Finland, Germany and Austria. Several countries are also in the process of setting up Marrow groups. Marrow was the winner of the Rex Crossley ‘Best Project in the World’ award at AM07 and AM08 and was 2nd place at MM09.

Marrow is responsible for approximately one-third of the 6000+ potential donors recruited onto the register in the UK each year. In 2008 alone 3,429 people joined the register at Marrow clinics. In the last 10 years nearly 100 people who have signed up at Marrow-run clinics have gone on to donate bone marrow.

LOVE LIFE. LIVE LIFE. GIVE LIFE.

Marrow works with the Anthony Nolan Trust to recruit potential donors onto their stem cell register.

There are Marrow Groups at most universities with a medical school, to find out more visit Marrow central

To find contacts for your local group, please see the group pages of our wiki