People in Northampton are being given the chance to help save a life by attending a special recruitment event at Sixfields Stadium organised by the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust.
The event, which has been organised to help find a match for the father of Bugbrooke resident Claire Evans, will be held in the restaurant of the Cobblers’ ground on Thursday from 5pm to 8pm.
Ms Evans’s father has been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer and needs a bone marrow transplant to save his life.
Cobblers midfielder Ben Harding said: “I can’t imagine what it must be like to be told that you have blood cancer and you need a bone marrow transplant to save your life – but that you can only have that transplant if Anthony Nolan can find you a matching bone marrow donor.
“It’s simple: if more people join the register, Anthony Nolan can provide more matches and save more lives.”
Jenner Mackay-James, regional recruitment manager for Anthony Nolan, said there were more than 450,000 donors on the Anthony Nolan register, but the charity could still only find matches for around half the people who needed a transplant.
She said: “We particularly want young men aged 18-30 to sign up as they are the most likely to be chosen to donate, so the Northampton Town FC fans are the perfect target!”
The Cobblers have supported Anthony Nolan since “Matt’s Match”, a campaign to find a bone marrow donor for 15-year-old local boy Matt Herbert, who was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2009.
The Cobblers held a similar recruitment drive as part of the campaign, which saw over 1,000 new donors sign up to the Anthony Nolan register.
Jenner Mackay-James adds, “We were so impressed by the fantastic level of support we received from Northampton Town FC during the “Matt’s Match” campaign, and I’m hoping that we’ll get a similar response this time around. I
“f anyone wants to join the register but can’t make the event itself, they can sign up online at www.anthonynolan.org – it only takes ten minutes.”
To join the register people only need to fill in a short application form and provide a small saliva sample.
For more inofrmation go to www.anthonynolan.org for more information.
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