Helping to Delete Blood Cancer
NHS Blood and Transplant joins forces with blood cancer charity
Blood cancer patients are often treated with stem cell and bone marrow donations. So it’s good news that we are expanding our services by providing stem cell and bone marrow collection services for Delete Blood Cancer (also known as DKMS) through our Therapeutic Apheresis Service (TAS) unit in Sheffield.
DKMS was founded in Germany back in 1991 and now has offices in the UK, Chile, Poland, the United States and Germany. This international organisation has more than 8 million potential donors registered to provide blood stem cells to those that need them.
We already work with the British Bone Marrow Registry and Anthony Nolan, and joining forces with DKMS will mean that we’re the only NHS provider for all three stem cell and bone marrow registries in England.
How to become a potential blood stem cell donor with DKMS
For someone diagnosed with blood cancer, a blood stem cell donation from a matching donor could be their last chance of survival. Register as a potential blood stem cell donor to go on standby to save a life.
Our Therapeutic Apheresis Services (TAS) Units
We currently provide Therapeutic Apheresis Services (TAS) from eight units across England – in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Oxford and Sheffield.
From these units we are able to offer a range of specialist treatments for patients with a wide range of clinical conditions, including; red cell exchange (to treat patients with sickle cell disease), therapeutic plasma exchange (for conditions such as myeloma, multiple sclerosis and some leukaemias) and platelet depletion (to treat patients with conditions that cause an over-production of platelets, causing circulation problems and potential for strokes).
The stem cell and bone marrow collection services for DKMS will be offered in collaboration with colleagues in Cellular and Molecular Therapies and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
