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Wednesday 19th March
Bellan House

Anthony Nolan Trust, Recruitment Clinic, 4.00pm-7.00pm

A donor recruitment clinic was held at Bellan House today, organised by Ben Walters from Glyn Ceiriog whose life was saved by a bone marrow transplant after being diagnosed with leukaemia in 2006.  Many thanks to all those who came along and made it such a success.  Here's what the Trust's Donor Recruitment Manager said.

"The event was very successful.  We managed to recruit 45 new donors which is a really good number . . . . please could you pass my thanks on to all the staff that helped. They really made us feel welcome and looked after.

Rebecca Sedgwick
Donor Recruitment Manager (North West England & North Wales)
Anthony Nolan Trust"

Pictured here are Anthony Nolan staff Wendy Gowing and Rebecca Sedgwick together with Ben Walters and Benson Ip of Year 13

Donor Plea by Marathon Man - Oswestry Advertizer, March 11th 2008

Ben Walters from Glyn Ceiriog is organising a bone marrow donor recruitment session

A year after his life was saved by a bone marrow transplant, Glyn Ceiriog's Ben Walters is holding a clinic to find new donors in Oswestry next week and will be running the London Marathon to raise awareness.

In 2006, 25-year-old Ben was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and joined 7,000 others desperately hoping to find a match on the bone marrow donors register.

"I was so lucky," says Ben, "Donors must be 18 to 40-years-old and the one match for mine was a 39-year-old!

"For many there is just no match and you wonder why everyone isn't signed up to the register. That's why I wanted to hold a bone marrow clinic to give local people the chance to save a life, like mine was."

Ben reached a point where he could not walk as the muscles in his legs had grown too weak, and promised himself he would never be at that point again: "I started walking short distances and gradually built up."

"A year on I'm running into Oswestry from Glyn Ceiriog. I can't join the register myself now, so I wanted to find other ways to help."

To help take back more lives from leukaemia, The Anthony Nolan Trust constantly needs more people aged 18 - 40 to join its bone marrow register, especially young men and people from black and minority ethnic communities

All you need to do to join the Anthony Nolan bone marrow register is come along to the recruitment clinic, read some information, fill in a form and, if eligible, give a small blood sample.  Advanced techniques would mean that the donated materials can now be acquired through a blood donation - surgery and general anaesthetics are no longer necessary.

For more information visit www.anthonynolan.org.uk or telephone 02072 841234.