A swab drive campaign to find a Liverpool alumni’s stem cell match to save her life came to the city yesterday.
Yvette Chin, 41 has been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a rare and aggressive form of blood cancer.
After many attempts at treatment she has been told she has months to live, unless she has a stem cell transplant.
She is yet to find her life saving stem cell match.
Miss Chin is of mixed Chinese and Jamaican heritage, making it more difficult for a match to be found.
Those from minority ethnic backgrounds have a 37% chance of finding a match, compared to 72% for White Caucasian patients.
Miss Chin is appealing to members of the public to sign up to a national stem cell register to improve the chances of patients like her finding a donor match.
She said: “There are others in my situation right now, and there will be more in
the future.
“People, who like me, want to see their nieces, nephews,
sons and daughters grow up.
“The more people who sign up right now, the more likely there will be a match for me and countless others.”
Only 3% of the UK’s population are registered as potential blood stem cell donors.
Yvette’s story has highlighted a major concern about the amount of people signed up to the stem cell register.
Alongside the racial inequality within stem cell donation.
More than 100 staff and students joined the stem cell register at Liverpool University’s Harold Cohen Library yesterday.
Even more joined the register at The Spine building on Smithdown Lane during the Liverpool Against Racism conference, including mayor Joanne Anderson.
If you didn’t get down to sign up yesterday you can still sign up and hopefully save a life here.
