Big decision, penderfyniad mawr!

Bone Marrow donation is the process by which someone donates their bone marrow. This may be to a family members, sibling or a complete stranger in my case.

The basic concept is that you take bone marrow donation from a matching donor and place it in that patient, who has had cytotoxic chemo and radiotherapy, to kill their cancerous bone marrow.  This can be done from your hips, which produces a lot of bone marrow, or from the blood following a course of proliferating injections. Bone marrow donation acts as a potential cure, as the patient receives the donor's stem cells as a drip, and the stem cells start to act as new bone marrow for the patient.

There are two ways of giving bone marrow, and the final decision of which one lies with the donor. These two are Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Collection (PBSC) or Bone Marrow Donation. I won't talk about both processes in detail, but I will tell you why I chose PBSC and not Bone Marrow Donation!

Bone Marrow Donation is the one most people associate with marrow donation! It's the quickest (in terms of treatment days) and is easier to understand! Under general anaesthetic, a haematologist or surgeon will use needles to aspirate the marrow within your hips and collect it in a bag! You wake up, recover from the anaesthetic as with normal surgery and a few days later will be back to normal, potentially with a little achy back! I didn't choose this process because I didn't anyone sticking needles into my hips under an anaesthetic, something I have never had before!

But the biggest reason was that the doctor for the patient had put in a preference towards PBSC, and as with the decision to say yes, going against what would be most beneficial to the patient seemed stupid! Therefore, I consented to PBSC!

Between me and the Welsh Blood Service, we picked dates and waited.....



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Mae rhoi mêr esgyrn yn broses hawdd ei deall - a gall rhywun fod yn rhoi i aelod o'r teulu, brawd, chwaer neu ddieithryn.

Y syniad syml yw bod mêr esgyrn yn cael ei gymryd o rhoddwr ac yn cael ei roi i glaf sydd angen trawsblaniad. Gall y celloedd gael eu tynnu o gluniau'r rhoddwr neu o'r gwaed, yn dilyn triniaeth GCSF. Mae'r celloedd yn dechrau fel ymddwyn fel mêr esgyrn ar gyfer y claf a gobeithio bydd hwn yn arbed ei bywyd gan y byddant wedi derbyn cyfres o driniaethau i ladd eu celloedd cancr.

Ar ôl dewis dyddiadau, roedd nawr angen aros......


Ffaith ddidorol: Bydd y claf yn etifeddu fy alergeddau (er nad oes gen i rai) oherwydd bod mêr esgyrn yn creu celloedd B sydd yn gyfrifol am fecanwaith alergedd.

Interesting fact: The patient will now have any allergies the donor had due to the products of bone marrow mediating allergy.