NOVEMBER 2 TO 8 CHILDREN WITH LEUKEMIA AWARENESS WEEK

''November 2nd till 8th is a week that is specifically given to children with leukemias by the organisation LOSEV. As Dr. Fazil Küçük Faculty of Medicine, we wanted to make a difference and bring awareness to leukemia by organising a small conference about the importance of bone barrow transplantation.

Kemal Saracoglu Foundation KKTC is looking for donor volunteer candidates for TRNC citizens only. Volunteers required to be registered individually and their information file will be kept until a match is found. The bone marrow of a registered individual from Cyprus can match the marrow of a citizen of Italy and by donation, you can help he/she to build a hopeful future.

Bone marrow transplantation can be performed in two different ways. The first method is the "apheresis method", in this way the donor will be held in the mornings and evening for 4 days to increase the number of stem cells in the blood. On the 5th day, the stem cells are extracted from the blood and they are separated/ filtered from their blood roots in order to inject it back to the donor again. The second method is the bone marrow aspiration. For this process, the donor should be hospitalised a day prior and has a surgery for approximately 30min under general anaesthesia. The donor can be discharged from the hospital during the same day. The method of bone marrow transplantation is affected by the health condition and disease status of the donor. Donors of the Kemal Saracoglu Foundation are required to be a healthy individual aged 18-65 years, to be a citizen of the TRNC, and to be a first-timer.

To date, 66 TRNC citizens have been bone marrow donors, and this is a very good number compared to TRNC population. Those 66 individuals may have become the hope of our future. We sometimes think that doing good things only comes with hard work, success, and money, but there is one thing that we're skipping and it's to be a good person. We do not have to be too rich, or too smart to do and act good. All we need is the mercy in  our hearts and empathise with those transplant receivers. Although being a donor may not make a big difference for our own beings, we should consider the importance of that donation to make someone's life more valuable and shouldn't be too late to be a donor.''

Salih Canlar

EMU Faculty of Medicine

General Secretary of DAUBAT,

Translation:  İlayda Ayça Ertürk,

Communication Coordinator of DAUBAT