On Wednesday, April 26, 2023, the trainees of the Textile Academy NRW were able to register as potential donors in the donor file as part of a registration campaign by the Bone Marrow Donor Center (KMSZ). This was the first of three planned dates at the Textile Academy.
The KMSZ was founded in 1991 at Düsseldorf University Hospital. With over 235,000 registered potential donors, it is one of the largest stem cell donor centers in Germany.
Ms. Lilian Schnellmann from the University of Düsseldorf and her team regularly organize information events at vocational schools or for students in the upper secondary school. It is important to inform the students without creating emotional pressure. Everyone can decide for themselves.
The class teachers informed the trainees about the campaign in advance and suitable information material was provided.
At the beginning, the two medical students Rebecca Niemüller and Nicole Breukelchen gave a 30-minute talk on the subject of blood cancer.
Every year in Germany alone, around 13,500 children and adults are diagnosed with leukemia or other malignant blood diseases. In around 30% of patients, a suitable person can be found in the family. For all others, a search is made for an unrelated donor. As the tissue characteristics that must match occur in countless variants, the probability of finding a suitable person is extremely low. This is why it is so important to make as many people as possible aware of the issue and recruit them as potential donors.
With 9 million potential donors, a comparatively large number of people are registered in Germany.
Ms. Niemüller and Ms. Breukelchen then explained the registration process, the requirements that must be met in order to be considered as a donor and what happens if you are actually a suitable donor.
Afterwards, the trainees were able to register themselves in the KMSZ database by means of an uncomplicated cheek swab using a cotton swab. One trainee was particularly pleased as she had actually wanted to register for a long time. “It’s just a really straightforward way to do it now, so of course I had to seize the opportunity.”