I cannot describe how I feel at the moment: elated, fear, apprehension, hope?
A patient needs a bone marrow stem cell transplant, and I am a match for that person.  I don’t know that person, and I never will.

In 2003, I added my name to the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR). At the time, The Sunflower Fund was appealing to the public to assist them by becoming bone marrow stem cell donors to save the lives of patients suffering from leukaemia and other life threatening blood disorders. Unfortunately the chances of finding a match from someone, who is unrelated to the patient, are very slim, 1:100 000.

Read more: Be the Match

On behalf of all patients past, present and future, The Sunflower Fund dedicates this page to the unsung heroes – the donors who have been prepared to Share a Little, to Save a Life – without them there would be no hope – YOU HAVE MADE THE DIFFERENCE and we salute you.

Special thanks and recognition must also go to the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR), a national organization with the responsibility to process requests for haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) from unrelated donors emanating locally and from abroad – without their specialist expertise none of this would be possible. 
The SABMR is a member of the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) and has been designated the National HUB centre for Africa, through which incoming and outgoing requests for donors are channelled.

The South African gene pool is unique and thus extremely valuable to the rest of the World.  The SABMR is regularly approached to provide donors for African and Asian patients and patients of mixed ethnic origin. All blood stem cell donations from South African volunteers, however, take place at one of the specialised centres in South Africa and are hand carried by a personal courier to the patient’s transplant centre.  For more info on the SABMR click here.

In compliance with international agreement, strict anonymity is maintained between donor and patient.

The Sunflower Fund recruits donors for the SABMR.  To register as a donor call: 0800-12-10-82

“It was peer pressure” said Brenda Masuku, a resident of Johannesburg, explaining how she became listed in the South African Bone Marrow Registry in 1999.  “A couple of my friends at work were going to participate in a bone marrow drive for a South African boy who had leukaemia and they urged me to join them”

Brenda, a call centre agent for a large insurance company, was 23 years old when she donated.  She is delighted that something done on a whim has resulted in a personal satisfaction she could never have imagined.
The youngest of eight children from a village in Mpumalanga, South Africa, she is the only member of her family who has ever donated blood and she is the first black South African to  become an unrelated stem cell donor.  “It is not typical of black South African culture to donate blood, let alone do something like become a stem cell donor”, says Brenda.

Read more: Brenda’s Story