Everyone is invited to do a good deed during “Danske Bank Vilnius Marathon”!

In the heart of the Vilnius old town –Cathedral square – thousands of people are going to gather for “Danske Bank Vilnius Marathon”. Special attention is going to be set to an initiative “Būk geras” (“Be Good”) which is aiming to show the society blood diseases’ treatment’s and bone marrow donation ‘s problems. Also, it is going to complement to making Lithuanian unrelated bone marrow donor register bigger – everyone is invited to do a good deed ant to register to it.

“I was surprised to find out that it is so easy to become a bone marrow donor and what a simple procedure the donating is. After it you start feeling that you’ve made something so unreal and simple at the same time. It’s unreal because you’ve just saved someone’s life and simple because you didn’t have to do anything – everything was done by the team of doctors. I want this to be understood by more people” reveals Edvinas who became a donor to give his bone marrows to a little girl just a year ago.

Edvinas was encouraged to become a donor 5 years ago when a friend of his found out that she had cancer. He was 30 years old by that time. “Imagine yourself having a blood disease. You need a donor, otherwise you will die. You are surrounded by so many people and one of them could give you a chance to survive if he or she only registered to bone marrow donor register. Don’t be that anonymous person, register. Let’s help each other out.”

According to director of Lithuanian unrelated bone marrow donor register, doctor haematologist Rita Čekauskienė, people have negative associations to a phrase “blood marrow donation“. „Most of the people don‘t know that this donation  is not harmful to a donor because every person’s blood marrows are constantly renewing themselves and the procedure isn’t painful.”

“Today blood marrow transplantation is the only way to save a person who is ill with a serious blood disease when the other ways are ineffective. In some cases it’s very important to find a donor very fast. Sometimes there are cases when it’s impossible to find the right donor to a global register which has over 24 million members. You might be the only one who can save a person who’s ill with a deadly disease” said R. Čekauskienė.

Director of Lithuanian unrelated bone marrow donor register reassures that even the full marathon distance runners will be able to register. “While signing up, you only have to fill out the consent form to be included into the register and a form about your health, also, to give 9ml of blood from a vein for examination. This amount won’t do any harm to a person’s health so everyone will be able to register.”

Ieva Drėgvienė, head of community of blood cancer patients „Kraujas“ told us that there will be runners‘ team „Alpenkime vėžį“ (“outrun the cancer”) in „Danske Bank Vilnius Marathon“ which is going to support the beautiful idea of becoming a donor. “There will be doctors, nurses, psychologists, blood marrow donors, survivors of blood cancer and others who support the donation running. We invite everyone to register and to help Lithuanian blood marrow donor register grow. For those who still have doubts – come, talk to us.”

If you are from age 18 to 35, you can join the blood marrow register. For more information, visit www.kraujas.lt