Job or Opportunity Category: Healthcare
- Description
April 2022
Iranian donors are needed.
Many patients with blood diseases require a stem cell transplant as part of their treatment, and many do not have a fully matched donor in their family. Patients are more likely to find a match from within their own ethnic group, but Iranian donors are underrepresented on the Canadian stem cell registry.
We asked Iranian People to share the reasons why they signed up as donors. Here is what they said:
Dr. Pegah Afshar, Family Physician, Vancouver BC
What is stem cell donation?
Watch this whiteboard video to learn more about blood stem cell donation, how it helps patients in need, how the matching process works, and what donation looks like.
How are stem cells donated?
There are 2 ways in which stem cells can be donated:
- Blood – 90% of the time stem cells are obtained from a simple procedure that is similar to giving blood. A growth factor is used to increase stem cell count in blood, which is then collected in a procedure taking around 4-6 hours.
- Bone marrow – stem cell donation from bone marrow is necessary less than 10% of the time. The procedure is performed under anesthesia and donors who have undergone bone marrow donation report the feeling post-donation to be similar to falling on ice.
If matched with a patient, a physician will decide which method is best suited under the circumstances at hand. See the images below for details on how each procedure is performed.
What now?
Register to be a stem cell donor today at https://www.blood.ca/en/stemcells
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