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I am celebrating my 65 birthday by running the London Marathon for the Leukaemia Cancer Society.

 

This is a small organisation, which is based in Haringey, London  (where I am a Councillor), but benefits people far beyond.

 

Its main purposes are:

 

(1)        to get as many people as possible onto the National and the Anthony Nolan registers for potential bone marrow donors;

 

(2)        to provide material support for people who come to London for medical treatment and who cannot afford to keep themselves;

 

(3)        to provide trained counsellors to help patients and their families to deal with diagnosis, to support them during treatment and, where sadly this is necessary, to cope with bereavement.

 

(4)        to fund medical research.

 

What the Society does:

 

It holds events where people give DNA samples for the donor registers. These can then be searched whenever a patient is seeking a donor with a matching tissue type. This is literally vital work because many population groups are underrepresented on the data bases.

 

• At present, the chances for a patient from the Mediterranean finding a match are about a quarter of the chances for a patient from northern Europe.
• And the chances even for northern European patients are not yet nearly good enough
• Unfortunately, the chances of people from the Middle East or the Indian sub-Continent are even worse

 

The Society accommodates up to 3 families at a time in flats that it has above its modest office premises in Bounds Green, London. It also provides other financial support.

 

It arranges for trained volunteer councillors to see patients and their families, and it pays for professional councillors if volunteers aren’t available when needed. It also runs an online and telephone support service.

 

It makes grants for relevant research.

 

What your money buys

 

£700 buys an event out of London for recruiting people onto the registers.

 

Remember, the more people there are on the databases, the more lives can be saved.

 

£5 - provides 15 people with vital information leaflets which help people when they or a family member is  diagnosed with blood cancer.

 

£15 -  funds overnight accommodation for the parents of a patient.

 

£20 -  provides a counselling session to a cancer patient or their loved ones.

 

I am setting a target of £1,600 (that’s £1500 plus the £100 that I’m giving to start things off).

 

Please give generously

 

 

 

David Schmitz

 

 

P.S. You can follow my training twinges and whinges on Twitter @schmitz_dr