Wagga's Jennifer Nixon urges residents to donate this World Marrow Donor Day

Jennifer Nixon was diagnosed with myelodysplasia, a rare form of blood cancer affecting only one in 500,000 people, on Christmas Eve in 2016.

The 64-year-old first underwent a stem cell transplant in 2018 and again in June this year, thanks to generous donors from Germany.

With a shortage of Australian donors, Ms Nixon is using World Marrow Donor Day on Saturday, September 16, to urge people to donate and help give others a second chance at life.

According to the Leukaemia Foundation, there are about 1000 Australians urgently waiting for the perfect living bone marrow donor match as part of their life-saving treatment.

About 90 per cent of Australians waiting for a bone marrow transplant, also known as a stem cell transplant, are blood cancer patients.

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For about 20 per cent of blood cancer patients, a stem cell transplant is their only hope of treating and curing their blood cancer diagnosis.

A total of 19,500 Australians are expected to be diagnosed with blood cancer in 2023, and 3900 of them will rely on finding a donor match to cure their blood cancer.

As it stands, Australia's donor pool is not meeting the patient needs across the country despite it having one of the highest rates of performing stem cell transplants compared with the rest of the world.

Like Ms Nixon, Australian patients are increasingly dependent on overseas donors.

"Without them we won't survive," Ms Nixon said.

"Bone marrow donors are incredibly important to me."

Ms Nixon said not having to rely on international donors makes the process a lot easier.

"It makes things a lot more accessible if we're not relying on overseas donors," she said.

Leukaemia Foundation chief executive Chris Tanti said time was of the essence for those needing stem cell transplants.

"It's a brutal treatment and generally patients that undergo a stem call transplant do so because their are no other stem cell treatments available to them and they will sadly deteriorate without it," he said.

Ms Nixon said she can't understand why more people in Australia aren't donating, given it is such a quick process.

"It's a really quick procedure," she said.

"It takes about 15 minutes."

To add your name to the bone marrow register, visit lifeblood.com.au/organ-and-tissue/bone-marrow

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