Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page in support of the Anthony Nolan Trust

You may have seen the recent media coverage of the critical impact the air traffic restrictions are having on their life-saving work. At The Anthony Nolan Trust, they find matches for patients who need life-saving stem cell transplants. They provide almost 900 transplants a year and regularly import stem cells from bone marrow donors across the world as well as from our UK register. They use specially trained volunteer couriers to carry cells by hand from where they were donated to the hospital where the transplant takes place.

But because of the volcanic ash air chaos, 16 people across the UK in desperate need of a life saving stem cell transplant are now in an extremely vulnerable state waiting for bone marrow currently stuck in Europe, Canada, the US and Israel. They are doing everything humanly possible to get transplants through using alternative means of transport. Once stem cells have been taken from the donor they have only 72 hours to get them to the person who needs them. They have a further 9 people about to have transplants next week whose lives rely on bone marrow coming in from abroad.

They will pull out all of the stops to help support people in immediate critical need. But the fact remains that if we had more people on our UK bone marrow register, we could reduce our reliance on donors in other countries. Currently, for every two people whose lives we help save each day, there are two who do not get the life-saving transplant they need because we simply do not have the funds to grow our bone marrow register at the rate required.

You can help us change this and see me run a half marathon!

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.