The get swabbed campaign is a movement for the month of February to encourage men to donate stem cells.
Sarah Jasmins, stem cell territory manager for Western Canada of the Canadian Blood Services, says they are looking for healthy men aged 17-35 to register.
Registering is important because it is still very unlikely a match is found. There are currently 1400 Canadians without a match in the registry, so by registering you could save a life.
In Manitoba to donate stem cells, you would have to go to Cancer Care Manitoba in Winnipeg. All costs associated with donating and going to and from the hospital for the donor and one other person would be covered.
There are two procedures for donating stem cells. The one 85% of people do, takes 4-6 hours. The donor is given a medication 5 days before that will cause the stem cells to grow. The medication also causes stem cells to move from inside the bone to the bloodstream and with a needle, the doctors can remove stem cells. They then remove some of the stem cells from the blood and return the rest.
The other 15% of the time it is a surgery where the donor is put to sleep and a needle removes stem cells from the back of the hip bone. After that, the donor will feel as if they fell on ice, but no other pain should be felt.
To register, click here.
