Campaign to register stem cell donors

Photo: Sam Turner with Izaack and Suzi Powell.

Landmarks across the City of Moreton Bay and South East Queensland will be lit up as part of the Light Up Bright campaign which aims to prompt more people to join the stem cell donor registry.

The Peninsula’s Sam Turner is driving the initiative in Queensland, pushing for landmarks to don red, orange and green lights and organising a local swab drive to boost the donor register in Australia.

She connected with charity Strength to Give after her friend Suzi Powell’s son Izaack was diagnosed with Leukaemia and needed a stem cell transplant.

Every year, about 1000 Australians actively seek donors, but only half find a match in their family. The rest need volunteer donors.

More than 17,000 people are diagnosed with blood cancer every year in Australia.

“Ideally, we’re looking for people between the ages of 18 and 35, and preferably male because they tend to make more cells which is better for recipients,” Sam explains.

A swab drive will be held at Prince Charles Hospital on September 24.

Sam hopes young people will come along to provide a sample via cheek swab. If they are eligible, they will be asked to register.

If at some point they are a match for a person needing a stem cell transplant, they will be contacted about making a donation.

The process is similar to giving blood and is done at a hospital as an outpatient.

Susie says it is painless, except for the initial needles.

“A lot of people think it’s an operation and you have to have it taken out of your hip, which they used to have to do,” she explains.

“Now, you do have to have a couple of injections leading up to it to help the stem cells get into the blood stream but then it’s pretty much like having blood taken.

“You sit in the chair, you have blood taken out of one arm and it’s filtered through a machine ... it takes the stem cells out and then puts the blood back into the other arm.”

Izaack says the stem cells he received from his older sister saved his life.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for it,” he says.

Many people aren’t able to find a match, or half-match, within their family and have to hope there’s someone on the international registry who is compatible. The more people on the register, the better the odds.

“Most of my mates got around doing the swabs and that kind of thing ... if it wasn’t for me, they wouldn’t have done it or known about it,” Izaack says.

Sam is hoping the Light Up Bright campaign will raise awareness and prompt more young people to take part in the swab drive.

“It’s something that should be in all universities. In the (United) States that’s how they run it. The kids run it in unis ... all sporting events. People are swabbing at fetes ... high schoolers,” she says.

“It should be a simple thing to be able to do, so that’s what we’re driving.”

Izaack, who was playing with Brisbane Roar before his diagnosis in 2021, has returned to training at Peninsula Power Football Club, and started a university degree in property economics.

To find out more about Strength to Give, visit strengthtogive.org.au