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Keyan talks about his donation experience

KM Group reporter Keyan Milanian has just had a procedure to 'harvest' stem cells to donate bone marrow.

It is the gift of life. Here, in his own words, he tells of the moments just before the donation....

Adult male - a life in two little words.

But those two words, just nine letters in all, are the reason I am in hospital receiving a stringent medical before my blood stem cells are collected.

Just over 18 months ago I signed up, along with colleagues on the Gravesend and Dartford Messengers, to a bone marrow donor register to help find a match for Rianna Deol, a six-year-old from Dartford.

Rianna received a transplant last year and her family are waiting to see whether the resulting operation was a full success.

Rianna is one of the lucky ones. But the stark reality is, many patients will die if they do not receive transplants.

Every year thousands of people with bone marrow diseases like leukaemia and aplastic anaemia, reach a stage where their only hope of survival is a blood stem cell transplant from a donor who shares the same tissue type.

Although family members, mainly siblings, may offer the best match, 70 per cent of patients do not have a suitable sibling match and must rely on a stranger to offer the chance of life.

I started undergoing further tests at the end of last year and have been confirmed as a match for a patient.

When I told my aunt, her response was typical of many I have spoken to about the process: "Doesn't that hurt? I wouldn't do it." One myth the Anthony Nolan Trust is trying to break is that bone marrow donation always requires surgery.

Eighty per cent of donations are carried out by peripheral blood stem cell harvest rather than the original marrow donation, which requires surgery.

Although the marrow donation is described as "uncomfortable" for donors, the only side-effects of the cell harvest are flu-like symptoms during the administering of G-CSF and tiredness after the procedure.

Donors can request to know the condition of the patient but their identity is kept confidential.

Although all I have been told is an adult male will be sharing my cells, the feeling you are potentially saving someone's life is special enough.

To find out more about bone marrow donation, go to the Anthony Nolan Trust website