Bone marrow donation.

I see that Alice has died, having completed most of her bucket list.
uk.news.yahoo.com/bucket-list-cancer-teenager-alice-dies-154734391.html#RQPf8If
I hope she prompted a lot of readers to come forward as potential donors.
My heart goes out to her friends and family.

I had a blood test and was on the antony nolan bone marrow donor list in the late 1980s,they said then you could not donate after age 60 ,was a blood donor for years until to much scar tissue meant they did"nt want me anymore!

I think if you have had certain diseases e.g. cancer you are not very welcome as a blood donor or tissue donor. I have assumed since having breast cancer years ago that this is the case.
I have a friend who had a bone marrow donation from her brother that saved her life. My son had a self-transplant of his own cells to treat his lymphoma. These days it is more of a stem cell transplant - which does not involve anaesthetics or big needles.
So I do my bit by helping to raise money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. They are funding fantastic work and hopefully I will see the day when no more donors are needed.

Alice lives in the town where I have a second home and the local newspaper has been covering the story, they have been encouraging people aged 18 to 40 to register for the bone marrow register.

I donated bone marrow for a sibling a few years ago and they said at the time that the best donors were young men 18 to 35-I suppose 'cos they are fit and healthy. So in my late 50s I wasn't what the doctors hoped for but I was a perfect match. But it is an enormous responsability for anyone-if it didn't work and the person died or if it did work and they relapsed and asked for more donations you have to think things through. Personally I would be a devil's advocate if I knew anyone offering to donate.

I've just read Alice Payne's story on Yahoo. It was alongside another about Suri Cruise - 5 years old with a shoe collection worth £90,000 and clothes upwards of £2million. Strange old world isn't it? Words fail me.

I didnt know about the age limit for bone marrow donation.
Thanks for the info shysal and dorsetpennt.

I'm on the organ donor registration on line as well as carrying a donor card. Sadly at 67 years I think I'm too old for bone marrow hopefully not for organ donation but there must be a age limit on that too.

Have just read Alice's bucket list. What a moving story!. I hope she enjoys Take That this weekend.
Unfortunately a lot of gransnet contributors may be too old for bone marrow donation. The upper age limit is 60, or 55 for some registers. I remember looking into it some years ago and being refused.
I have been on the organ donor register for as long as I can remember, wonder if they have the same limits.