Students sign up more than 9,000 lifesavers on campus
Students at universities across the UK have recruited 9,100 potential lifesavers to the Anthony Nolan stem cell register this academic year.
Established 26 years ago, Marrow is the name given to Anthony Nolan’s network of student volunteer groups. According to data from Anthony Nolan, the Marrow group which recruited the most potential lifesavers to the stem cell register this academic year, was Newcastle Marrow with a whopping 1,000 signups.
Each person recruited to the Anthony Nolan stem cell register could go onto donate their stem cells to a patient in need of a lifesaving transplant.
Southampton Marrow came in second with 824 signups, followed by Leeds Marrow with 777.
The rest of the top 10 recruiting universities were Sheffield (580), Warwick (520), Manchester (488), Imperial College London (455), Glasgow (409), Durham (376) and Belfast (362.)
The work done by Marrow’s dedicated student volunteers across 40 UK universities is particularly crucial to Anthony Nolan’s work because research shows that stem cell transplants work better if the donor is younger.
Marrow groups raised a combined total of £45,067 this academic year to help fund Anthony Nolan’s work, including groundbreaking research its scientists are carrying out to discover new treatments.
Leeds university Marrow raised the most, with a total of £7,027 through its fundraising events.
Southampton Marrow had the second highest fundraising total with £6,092, followed by Newcastle in third with £4,257.
Both Glasgow and Sunderland raised around £3,600, followed by Belfast Marrow which raised £2,348 and Sheffield with £2,046.
Anthony Nolan University Officer Talia Adams said: ‘The work that Marrow volunteers do on campuses across the country to raise awareness of and recruit more people to the stem cell register, saves lives.
‘We know that one in four stem cell donors are recruited at university which tells you how important our Marrow volunteers are in our mission to save lives through stem cells.
‘Everyone at Anthony Nolan knows how hard our Marrow volunteers work to spread the word about the register. Their enthusiasm in delivering campaigns to encourage student signups makes us all very proud.’