September marks blood cancer awareness month and I met with Anthony Nolan, leading blood cancer charity, to discuss what more could be done to expand the stem cell register and save the lives of those suffering from this terrible disease.
They provided me with statistics that showed that more could be done in my constituency to build on the register. I am grateful to the 850 in Mid Worcestershire who have already signed up, however this figure ranks my constituency at 402nd of 650 and I know that we can build on this and do more. Just 37 people in my constituency added themselves to the register last month and it is incumbent on figures such as myself who have a public platform to highlight the importance of this issue and encourage more individuals to sign up to save a life.
Anthony Nolan are particularly looking for young men and people from ethnic minorities. The average age of donors in my constituency is 36, only 35% of whom are male, so I would appeal to any men aged 16-30 to look into being part of the stem cell register and potentially being called on to save a life. You can explore doing so here: anthonynolan.org/join.
Let's do what we can to boost the stem cell register this #BloodCancerAwarenessMonth