August is Bone Marrow Stem Cell Donation Awareness Month. The Sunflower Fund educates and registers blood stem cell donors. They fundraise to cover the recruitment costs to grow a healthy, effective, ethnically diverse South African Bone Marrow Registry of committed donors. They play an active role in the process of saving lives through blood stem cell transplants.
The Sunflower Fund is committed to giving hope of life to adults and children in need of a blood stem cell transplant. A larger Registry significantly improves patients’ prospects of finding matching stem cell donors in order to undergo life-saving stem cell transplants.
To encourage people to do 67 minutes of community service for Mandela Day, the Durban North Blood Donor Centre in Kensington Square held a special blood drive on Tuesday 18 July in association with Mum’s Mail, Tate Nolan & Knight, Chateau Gateaux, Colour Domain and Immortal Art. The Sunflower Fund was also in attendance and recruited 40 new blood stem cell donors for inclusion on The South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR). Every blood donor received a special promotional SANBS gift, fudge from TNK and coffee vouchers as well as a sweet treat from Chateau Gateaux.
A commendable 128 units of blood were collected on the day. A massive thank you to all who made the effort to donate blood to save lives – every drop counts! Three patients benefit from every unit donated, so 384 patients benefited from this drive.
For more information contact the Durban North Blood Donor Centre on 031 – 563 1493 or visit www.sanbs.org.za.
For more information on The Sunflower Fund call 0800 12 10 82 or visit www.sunflowerfund.org.za