Brian Black reports on the bone marrow campaign, featuring interviews with families affected by the lack of a donor registry in Northern Ireland.
With opening scenes of children receiving treatment, the urgency and need driving the campaign is illustrated. Black introduces Malcolm Thomas, whose child passed away in March this year, due to the prolonged timescale required in finding a suitable donor. We meet another parent, Caroline Sacramento, who speaks about her two children, both of whom have Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome. Currently, the only way doctors can help the Sacramento children, is to treat symptoms and infections that arise due to the syndrome, with their only lifeline being an unrelated donor.
Malcolm explains the costs that come with current testing for donors in England, and that he was lucky that his local council had the money to do it for his daughter. However, she died during the wait for a donor and, so, the "only sense" Malcolm can make of her death, is to make it his purpose to create a free register, so anyone in need can utilise it.
There have been some lucky people in Northern Ireland who have benefitted from a bone marrow transplant, such as Eileen O'Hare who found an exact match in family member, Winnie Lavery. Winnie describes the donor experience as an "honour" and would do it again for anybody. Similarly, John Mulholland, a blood and plasma donor, would also be more than happy to donate bone marrow.