Every 20 minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with blood cancer and the register of stem cell donors – who are needed to save thousands of patients’ lives – does not currently meet the demand. Only 1 in 3 patients will find a donor match within their family and so every year over 2,000 people in the UK are left searching for a matching blood stem cell donor.
Anton Ferdinand
Anton Ferdinand
This Black History Month, Ex-West Ham and England football star Anton Ferdinand is working with blood cancer charity - DKMS, in urging new potential ‘heroes’ to join the blood stem cell register and be on standby to help save a life.
Ferdinand, 34, is working with DKMS after his six-year-old son lost a close friend to blood cancer this summer. Henry Walker, 5, from Billericay in Essex, was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia in 2018 - a rare condition where the bone marrow does not produce enough blood stem cells. Henry needed an urgent bone marrow transplant, but after an international effort to find a suitable match, the search was unsuccessful, and Henry lost his fight with blood cancer in June. In his honour, Anton decided to help raise awareness of the need for more blood stem cell donors to join the register to help other people, and children like Henry.
Anton Ferdinand urging new potential ‘heroes’ to join the blood stem cell register
Anton Ferdinand is working with DKMS, in urging new potential ‘heroes’ to join the blood stem cell register and be on standby to help save a life.
Anton said: “There is a real need for more people to join the register with DKMS. By donating your blood stem cells, you can potentially save someone’s life. That’s what you want to be – a hero. Some people think I’m a hero because I’ve played football, but the real heroes are the people who save lives”.
In October, the UK celebrates Black History Month, and Anton has also made a personal appeal to more people from the black minority ethnic community to come forward as potential donors. In the UK, there are around 2,000 people looking for an unrelated donor at any one time. Currently, 69% of patients can find the best possible match from a stranger, but this drops to just 20% if you're a patient from an ethnic minority background. Anton, who joined the register himself, hopes one day he will get the call to say he has been identified as somebody’s lifesaving match. He said: “Non-white people are under-represented on the blood stem cell registry, meaning people from a Black, Asian, or Ethnic Minority background seeking a stem cell donor stand a much smaller chance of finding their match. DKMS urgently need more non-white people to sign up as potential lifesavers.”