What kinds of donors are needed?
If you are healthy, between the ages of 17 and 50, and are willing to donate stem cells to anyone in need, you may be able to help. The genetic markers used to match donors to patients occur with different frequencies in different ethnic groups. For this reason, a person’s best chance of finding a matching donor is within his or her own ethnic group. Therefore, donors from as many ethnic communities as possible are needed to enhance the database so it has a broad ethnic representation that reflects the needs of all Canadian patients. While OneMatch has made advances in attracting more ethnically-diverse registrants, there is still room to grow. As of October 2008, 83 per cent of Canada’s Network is Caucasian and the remaining 17 per cent is of various ethnic backgrounds. Yet one in five Canadians identifies themselves as foreign born according to the 2006 Census.
