Singer and songwriter Jarrad Ricketts along with his wife Kim-Lee have taken up the challenge to help educate and spread awareness around signing up as a bone marrow donor and to raise much needed funds for the Patient Assistance Programme.
The South African Bone Marrow Registry has launched its “Give A Little Save A Life” online campaign to assist three patients who are awaiting transplants through its Patient Assistance Programme.
The couple will be appealing to the public via social media to boost donor sign-ups and to raise much-needed funds for the SABMR’s Patient Assistance Programme.
According to the SABMR, the coloured community are the least represented on their registry. For people of colour, the odds of finding a donor match is 1 in 400 000.
Jarrad said he was surprised to learn that coloured people are under-represented on the registry.
“It made me realise how much education still needs to be done to break the stigma around stem cell donation.
Hundreds of South African patients die every year from blood-related diseases, in many instances related to a shortage of mixed ethnicities, black, coloured and Indian donors.
“My wife and I have pledged our commitment to the SABMR by registering as donors and I’d like to encourage all of my supporters to do the same. If we all do our bit, just think how many lives we can save.
“Let's be someone’s tomorrow this Christmas.”
Kamiel Singh, Head of National Operations and Sustainability for the SABMR, says there are currently three patients on the registry’s Patient Assistance Programme that are in urgent need of financial assistance.
“Right now, we are trying to assist an 11-year-old girl from Cape Town with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia; a 55 year-old woman from Gauteng who has Myelodysplastic Syndrome and a man, aged 69, also from Gauteng, who has been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia,” he says.
To contribute to the Give a Little Save A Life campaign, go to https://www.backabuddy.co.za/sabmr-give-a-little-save-a-life2021.