The firm is organising a bone marrow donor recruitment clinic, run by the Anthony Nolan Trust national bone marrow register after an appeal from a Baker Tilly partner in another UK office whose wife had been diagnosed with the rare bone marrow disease MDS.
Baker Tilly, which has been the Anthony Nolan Trust’s auditors for several years, is organising a series of clinics in its UK offices and Milton Keynes office senior partner Terry Saunders (pictured) has appealed to local business to join the firm’s campaign.
He said: “We are very keen to help and I would like to make the initiative a success by signing up as many potential donors as possible.”
A total 7,000 patients are awaiting suitable donors for a bone marrow transplant. Mr Saunders said: “You could help us find the perfect match or be the one person in the world with compatible tissue type for one of the 7,000 patients.
“It is not every day that you have the chance to potentially save a life.”
MDS is a genetic blood disorder where the bone marrow does not produce enough healthy white blood cells and therefore the body’s immune system cannot fight off infections.
A bone marrow transplant is the only treatment for MDS to prevent leukaemia.
For further information, or to offer help, contact Sue De Fraine at Baker Tilly on Milton Keynes 687800 or e-mail susan.defraine@bakertilly.co.uk
The Anthony Nolan Trust is seeking new donors aged between 18 and 40, in good health and weighing more than eight stone. However, they must not be severely overweight and be willing to donate stem cells to any patient they may ever match.
A spokesman said the trust’s key target groups were male donors, young donors and donors from all ethnic minority backgrounds. The trust was seeking more donors are sought due to shortages from these vital groups, he added.
