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Bone Marrow – why you should consider becoming a bone marrow donor!


Signing up to become a bone marrow donor can make a difference for someone’s life.

A bone marrow transplant can be the only chance of survival for many people with severe disease such as blood cancer.

As only 30% of the people who need a bone marrow transplant find a match within their family, having a diversified international bone marrow register can really make a difference for many people around the world.

In order to sign up, you’ll be asked to have a health check and saliva sample taken. You’ll be contacted if you have a match and you can donate either peripheral blood stem cells or bone marrow.

Why you should be a bone marrow donor

Why you should be a bone marrow donor

See the orginal at the Juno Medical site here.

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Good news for childless couples – donor recruitment giving hope. What is your view on egg donation?


Hope for childless couples

Hope for childless couples

An abundance of egg donors to help childless couples conceive

There is normally a nationwide shortage of egg donations with many women on waiting lists.

Neelam Potdar is a Consultant Gynaecologist and Subspecialist in Reproductive Medicine at Leicester Fertility Centre and said: “In the past our waiting list has been as long as two years because there has been a lack of donors, which has meant couples seeking help elsewhere, even as far as Spain and Cyprus to receive donated eggs.”

Leicester Fertility Centre based at Leicester Royal Infirmary, has worked hard on recruiting donors and reducing the waiting list down to just six months. This has meant that we now have an unprecedented and unexpected surplus of egg donors.

Mo Thomas, Senior Counsellor at Leicester Fertility Centre said: “Any couple who are interested in egg donation should contact us. We are really pleased that we have managed to reduce our waiting lists and would welcome meeting anyone who would like our help in conceiving a child of their own.”

“We hope we can help as many couples as possible and we are happy to help NHS and private patients”, Mo adds.

Which prompts our question. Ladies – would you ever consider donating your eggs and why?

Please feel to share you thoughts and experiences in the comment section below.

Many thanks in advance.


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Donating an organ! Would you consider becoming an organ donor? Tell us your opinion?


Would you consider donating an organ?

Would you consider donating an organ?

It is a pretty regular thing in the UK , at least, for a news item on the need for more people to donate their organs after their death.  Currently organs that can be donated include :-

  • kidneys
  • liver
  • heart
  • lungs
  • small bowel
  • pancreas

Tissues that can be donated include:

  • the cornea (the transparent layer at the front of the eye)
  • bone
  • skin
  • heart valves
  • tendons
  • cartilage

In the UK and other countries there are plan afoot to make to a presumed consent or opt out system of organ donation.  This means that we will have to state that we do not want our organs to be used for transplantation surgery in the event of our passing as opposed to making a positive choice to donate.

We are really interested in what our readers think.  It would be great if you could take our poll below.

If you have received an organ from a donor it would be great if you could share your story in the comments box below.  Feel free to share any links that you think will be of interest to our readers.

Many thanks in advance.