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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Bone Marrow Donor Award Ceremony 2013 organised by the Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service (HKRCBTS)'s Hong Kong Bone Marrow Donor Registry (HKBMDR) was held today (September 21), with 83 bone marrow donors recognised.
The guests that attended the ceremony included Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, Chairman of Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service Governing Committee and Hong Kong Bone Marrow Donor Registry Governing Sub-committee, Mr Philip Tsai, President and Vice-President of Hong Kong Marrow Match Foundation, Professor Alice Chiu and Professor Raymond Liang.
Addressing the audience at the ceremony, Dr Ko praised bone marrow donors for their selfless contributions and generous donations. In appreciating bone marrow donors, he urged more people to register for bone marrow donation to bring hopes to more patients. At the ceremony, two bone marrow donor-recipient pairs met each other for the first time and shared their truly inspiring donation and transplantation experiences.
The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) of donor and recipient must be highly, or preferably completely, matched for a successful transplantation to be possible; if a patient could not find a donor within family, he or she has to resort to looking for an unrelated donor. According to statistics, the chance of finding a matching unrelated donor is about one in five to ten thousand only. The odds will be even less than one in one hundred thousand for patients who have 'rare' HLA type. Therefore, if more people register for bone marrow donation, the chance for finding a matched donor for any patient will be higher.
22 years ago, Hong Kong set up the world's first Chinese-based unrelated bone marrow donor registry. As at July 31 this year, some 94 000 people in Hong Kong have registered for voluntary bone marrow donation, and over 300 of them have already given their bone marrow to patients. In addition, the HKBMDR has successfully conducted searches and found matched haematopoietic stem cells for transplantation for about 700 local and overseas patients.
With the blessing of the Hospital Authority and Hong Kong Red Cross, the HKBMDR has extended its bone marrow donation service to Macao, subsequent to the signing of a "Memorandum of Co-operation" with the Health Bureau of Macao Special Administrative Region in December last year. This arrangement will further broaden the HKBMDR donor base and therefore will be able to benefit more people, not only in Hong Kong and Macao, but also other countries.
Members of the public who are aged between 18 and 60 and in good health condition can register for bone marrow donation at any blood donor centre. The simple registration process includes completion of a registration form, follow by a health screening and blood samples taking for laboratory tests. For information on bone marrow donation, please call 2710 1206 or visit our website at www.ha.org.hk/rcbts.
Ends/Saturday, September 21, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:49
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