Bone marrow donation

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Bone marrow is the soft, jelly-like tissue that is found in the hollow centre of all large bones.

Bone marrow contains stem cells. Stem cells produce red blood cells that carry oxygen around the body, white blood cells that fight infection, and platelets that help stop bleeding.

All these different blood cells are produced by the stem cells and released into the blood stream through the veins and thin tissue surrounding the bone. Without the bone marrow and stem cells, blood cannot be produced and we cannot survive.

If you have an illness or condition that affects your bone marrow (such as leukaemia), or requires treatment with chemotherapy or radiotherapy, your bone marrow may be damaged. This means that you may need a bone marrow transplant. During a transplant, healthy bone marrow will be fed into your blood stream. If the transplant is successful, the new bone marrow will begin making healthy blood cells and you will start to get better.

Ideally bone marrow should be donated from a family member, such as a brother or sister, because there must be a close match between tissue types. If a suitable donor cannot be found from family members, doctors will try to find someone on the bone marrow donor register.

There are thousands of people on the bone marrow register, but someone must be a very close match to be able to donate. That is why it is important to have lots of people on the register, from all ethnic backgrounds.