Bone marrow transplantation is necessary for certain serious blood diseases. This year, the Biomedicine Agency is particularly targeting young men who are representative of diversity.
The goal: “to give everyone the best chance of recovery”. The Biomedicine Agency launched its new annual campaign on Monday for the donation of bone marrow, a substance found inside the bones and part of which produces blood cellsaccording the national cancer institute. In 2022, more than 38,000 people signed up to donate their bone marrow, against less than 24,000 in 2021according to the Biomedicine Agency.
This public establishment, responsible for managing these registers, explains on his site that “bone marrow transplantation is necessary in certain serious blood diseases such as leukaemia”.
A “very altruistic” act
This is what Fabienne experienced, who learned in 2018 that she suffered from acute myelogenous leukemia, a blood cancer. “Immediately, the doctors are very clear: the leukemia that I have is one of the leukemias that have an unfavorable prognosis”, she tells BFMTV.
“They explain to me that I will have four months of intensive chemotherapy but that, whatever happens, I will have to go through a bone marrow transplant to recover,” adds the school teacher.
Thanks to a compatible donor in England, she benefited from a bone marrow transplant in March 2019: “it makes me feel like I have a little brother that I will never know, but who has done something very selfless” .
Today Fabienne emphasizes that her donor “could very well have never registered on this register” and has “infinite gratitude” for him.
Young men representative of diversity wanted
In a communiqué published in early April, the Biomedicine Agency announces that this year, it intends to “target in priority men aged 18 to 35, representative of diversity”.
“We need to find the person who is the most compatible. That’s why we need to have very diverse profiles”, develops with BFMTV the director general of the Agency, Marine Jeantet.
To become a potential donor, you must be between 18 and 35 years old when you register on the list – you can however remain registered and make a donation until you are 60 years old. You must also not be affected by certain health problems such as a heart condition or back-lumbar problems (the complete list is available ici). A saliva or blood sample is taken at the end of registration to identify compatibility with another patient.
You can be registered on the register and not be called immediately: Antoine tells BFMTV, for example, that he waited more than 14 years before being called. When a match has been identified, bone marrow donation can be done in different ways: by blood, which is the most common, or by a puncture in the posterior bones of the pelvis. “Carried out on a person in perfect health, bone marrow donation does not present any particular risk”, says the Biomedicine Agency on his site dedicated to this type of donation.
