Health charity to hold life-saving bone marrow register recruitment drive in Wembley
Sasha Mitchell with her two children - Credit: Archant
A health charity is urging black, mixed race and Asian residents in Brent to join the bone marrow donors register by attending a special recruitment drive in Wembley.
Orin Lewis and Beverley De-Gale established the ACLT (pic credit: PA) - Credit: Archant
The African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT) will be hosting the event on Saturday to encourage more people to save the lives of people like Sasha Mitchell.
Ms Mitchell, a mother-of- two, was diagnosed with rare blood cancer Anaplastic Large T-Cell Lymphoma last year.
She underwent a course of chemotherapy but sadly had a relapse and was told her only hope of survival was to find a bone marrow transplant.
Fortunately a match was found and she is currently in hospital recovering after undergoing the transplant last month.
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Ms Mitchell, who is of Jamaican, Nigerian and Hungarian heritage, said: “I continue to support the work of the ACLT in raising awareness of the growing need for African, Caribbean and mixed heritage donors. I urge everyone to go out and register.
“The process is simple and only requires a cheek swab.”
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ACLT aims to increase the number of ethnic minorities on the UK bone marrow, blood and organ donation registers as the chance of finding a match if you are black, mixed race or Asian is one in 100,000 where it is one in four if you are white.
The ACLT was established by Beverley De-Gale OBE and partner Orin Lewis OBE after her son Daniel was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of six in 1993.
Daniel eventually found a match but sadly died at the age of 21 from an unconnected illness.
Anyone who is aged between 16-55 years old and in good health can join the register.
The drive will take place at Copland Community School in Cecil Avenue (just off the High Road), on Saturday from 7pm to 11pm.
For more information about the charity visit here.
