Looking for potential donors!

Dear all,

As you may already know, my treatment for my lymphoma partly consists in an allograft.

This is a stem cells transplantation from a donor with his genetic code compatible with my organism. Those cells originally sit in the bone marrow, but with an adapted treatment, those cells can pass into the blood and therefore be collected easily.

In that order, a donor compatible with me is needed.

Doctors mainly turn to 2 leads:

-          They test my brother and sisters’ compatibility with my own genetic code. Hélène, Emilie, Marie-Cécile and Aurélien have therefore accepted to take a blood test and find out whether they are potential donors for me. Unfortunately they are not.

-          They start searching for a potential compatible donor within a data bank on national, European and worldwide levels.

The interest of this data bank is all in being as rich as possible with potential cells donors.

It is very easy to integrate the data bank: you only have to take a blood test. The blood sample then undergoes genetic tests and all its characteristics are compiled into the data bank. You are then registered as a potential donor.

And if some day someone like me needs a bone marrow cells transplantation and you are genetically compatible, only then would your stem cells be collected through the cytapheresis principia.

The cytapheresis is a preliminary treatment consisting of subcutaneous injections, previous to the linking of the donor’s blood flow to a cells separator that collects the stem cells. It is described as harmless by the doctors. In what concerns side effects, they are linked to the injection and may induce a slight burning feeling at the sting level, as well as minor bony pains.

And here comes my request:

Hopefully you are now aware of the importance of having as many potential donors as possible registered within the data bank.

As I myself resort to this data bank, I think it best to contribute enlarging its data in return. As I cannot be a valid donor myself, I would appreciate if you considered registering yourself and encourage the people around to do so too.

Objectively, there are very few chances that we might be compatible but your cells might save someone like me. And among your family and friends, someone might be compatible with me.

There are only 2 conditions to undergo this blood test:

-          be under 55

-           go to a blood transfusion centre

Please do not feel obliged to give your blood but at least give it a thought and inform as many people as you can.

Do not hesitate to contact me should you need further information.

Thank you.

Charlotte

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