SINGAPORE - The
Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP) today announced a revision in the age limit
for volunteers to donate their bone marrow to non-related patients suffering
from blood-related diseases.
With immediate effect, any donor on the register will
now be eligible to donate up to the age of 60 years, from the previous age of
55, which brings the BMDP in line with major registers in the UK and the US.
BMDP, a Singapore charity, builds and manages
Singapore's only register of volunteer bone marrow donors. It also provides a
365-day service to support the local transplant hospitals looking for a match
for their patients.
The register currently has around 50,000 volunteer
donors. Every year, BMDP works towards adding another 5,000 donors to increase
the odds of finding a match - which currently stands at just one in 20,000 in
the general population of the same racial group.
"Older adults today are fitter and more
health-conscious, and by adding five years to the availability of each donor,
we are providing a tremendous boost to our local register as a source of
life-saving bone marrow or stem cells for transplant," said BMDP President
Jane Prior.
Any person in good health and between the ages of 18
and 49 can be registered as a volunteer bone marrow donor.
All an interested donor needs to do is to provide a
DNA sample through a cheek swab and consent to having their sample tissue-typed
and added to the BMDP database.
Only if a donor is identified as a match for a patient,
will they actually be asked to donate their bone marrow or blood stem cells.
Tissue-typing each donor costs $150, which is covered
through public donations and fund-raising.
Therefore, the younger the donors are when they join
the register, the longer the lifetime value they represent to the patients,
BMDP said.
In the first six months of this year alone, more than
200 requests were submitted by the local hospitals to find a match for their
patients.
Bone marrow or blood stem cells were delivered to 29
patients between January and July from donors sourced through the local BMDP
register or from a partner register around the world.
YourHealth, AsiaOne
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