GEORGE NEWS - Garden Route residents are being encouraged to spare just a few minutes this weekend to register as potential stem cell donors.
It is a simple act that could one day save someone's life.
DKMS Africa*, the Mossel Bay-based creative agency Grindstone and destination management organisation Unfound Garden Route will host two donor registration drives.
The first takes place at Garden Walk Mall outside Hartenbos on Saturday 1 August, and the second at Garden Route Mall in George on Sunday 2 August. Both events run from 09:00 to 15:00.
The initiative was inspired by the 13-year-old Alba Overbeeke, who is undergoing treatment after relapsing with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. If her treatment is successful, she will need a stem cell transplant, making it vital to find a donor whose tissue type closely matches hers.
Although Alba's story sparked the campaign, the organisers say that the donor drives are about far more than helping one child. Every person who joins the international stem cell donor registry could one day become the life-saving match for someone battling blood cancer or another serious blood disorder anywhere in the world.
Painless act of heroism
Many people mistakenly believe stem cell donation requires major surgery. In reality, around 90% of donations are collected from the bloodstream in a process similar to donating blood or plasma. Registering is free, quick and painless, requiring only a simple cheek swab and a short registration form.
Esther Jacobs, Alba's mother and head of communications and sustainability at Grindstone, hopes the Garden Route community will rally behind the initiative.
"The hope I have to keep holding onto is that somewhere in the world, there may already be someone who could save my daughter's life - they just don't know they're needed yet," she said.
*DKMS Africa is part of the international DKMS network, one of the world's largest stem cell donor organisations. Its mission is to give patients with blood cancers and blood disorders the best possible chance of finding a matching stem cell donor by growing diverse donor registries and raising awareness about stem cell donation.
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