Recruiting efforts wrapped up Friday at post-secondary campuses across B.C., including at Langley’s Trinity Western University.
Recruiters were at the local private campus Tuesday, looking for younger people to step up, swab their cheek, and save a life.
It was the Canadian Blood Services team who were on site at the Glover Road institution, and they were specifically looking for students, between the ages of 17 and 35, to consider becoming a stem cell donor.
Ahead of the province-wide blitz, which also saw recruiters visit the Langley campus of Kwantlen Polytechnic University and six other post-secondaries across B.C. this month, blood services noted nearly a thousand patients in Canada were waiting for a lifesaving stem cell transplant.
Post-secondary students have the power to change a patient’s life, because people ages 17 to 35 make the best lifesaving stem cell donors, explained campaign organizers.
Stem cell transplants can treat more than 80 diseases and disorders.
When a patient undergoes a stem cell transplant, it’s often their last hope for survival, and the use of stem cells from younger donors typically leads to better patient outcomes.
The CBS team is trying to ensure Canada’s national stem registry should be as diverse as the country, noting that patients who need a stem cell transplant are more likely to find a matching donor among those who share their ethnic ancestry.
“Students who come from an ethnically diverse or mixed-race background could be the match a patient has been waiting for,” noted CBS communications specialist Paolo Oliveros.
To find out more about the campaign, people can still visit: www.blood.ca/swabatschool.
RELATED: Thousands of Canadians donate blood in wake of mad cow ban lifting
and
IN OTHER NEWS: As Lapointe retires, B.C. appoints new acting chief coroner