The Northamptonshire Black Police Association has joined forces with the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust and Find The Time to help heighten awareness of leukaemia sufferers within the county’s ethnic communities. They will be staging a clinic on April 27 to encourage people to become bone marrow donors. Garry Liburd, general secretary of the county BPA, said: “There is a desperate need to raise awareness of bone marrow registration within the county’s ethnic communities. WORRYING “It is a worrying fact that representatives of our African Caribbean, African mixed race and Asian communities are hugely under-represented on the bone marrow donor register. “We have joined forces with a number of other organisations to raise awareness of this situation to attempt to overcome barriers that may be errected as a result of religious or cultural factors. “People generally remain unaware that without the gift of life granted by bone marrow donations, children will die. “We want to encourage the local community, especially the black and Asian communities, to show their support and take a few minutes out of their day, come down to the Guildhall and register as potential bone marrow donors.” The ACLT has highlighted the plight of three sufferers urgently in need of a bone marrow donor from the black and Asian communities. Donna Benjamin, 37, is suffering from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells within the bone marrow. Her only chance of survival is a bone marrow transplant and she has just a one in 250,000 chance of finding a match, simply because she is of African Caribbean descent. Margaret Benjamin, 34, is suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia. Her only chance of survival is a bone marrow transplant after suffering a relapse. Margaret is mixed race. There are many other sufferers in need of bone marrow transplants of all ages across the country, one being Essa Akbar. He was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia last year and the consultants at Great Ormond Street Hospitals say he urgently needs a bone marrow transplant. Unfortunately, neither Essa’s parents nor his two-year-old sister are a match. Moreover, the hospital has conducted a worldwide search and once again no matches are currently available on the world registers. Essa’s family urgently need the Asian communities to step forward and ‘do the right thing’. The ACLT is also in touch with sufferers who are actually in remission and at present receiving chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy treatment. Chief executive Orin Lewis said: “Our hope is that these patients will complete their treatment and remain in remission but we know that this is not always the case and so the hope is that matches will be found just in case the unthinkable happens. SUFFERING “Because a person’s bone marrow type is an inherited characteristic, the chance of finding a matching donor for a patient is greater if the donor is from the same racial or ethnic background. “People suffering from blood conditions like Donna, Margaret and Essa who are from minority communities have a low chance of finding a bone marrow match. “While minorities are the worst affected, everyone in the UK is affected by the shortage of registered bone marrow donors.” “If you are aged 18-43, in good health and particularly if you are of African, African Caribbean, Asian, or mixed parentage descent, please come and register.” Liburd said. The clinic takes place at the Guildhall in Northampton on Wednesday April 27, between 11am and 8pm Reprinted from voice-online.com