More than 8,000 new stem cell donors after appeal from sick PSV press secretary

Last week, ANPPSV drew attention to stem cell donation during the PSV-FC Groningen match

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 14:42

About 8,300 people have registered as stem cell donors in recent weeks, following a call from PSV press secretary Thijs Slegers. At the beginning of February, he announced via Twitter that the leukemia (blood cancer) he suffers from can no longer be treated. He called on people to register with the Matchis foundation as a donor: “I can no longer be helped, but others can,” he said.

Matchis saw the registrations increase immediately after Slegers’ call, to about 5,000 new donors a week and a half ago. After that, several thousand more people registered with the foundation, says Matchis spokesman Bert Elbertse. “It can go that fast.”

Last week there was again a lot of attention for Slegers’ call. For example, the players and supporters of PSV and FC Groningen clapped for sixty seconds for the sick press chief last weekend, in the twelfth minute of the league match between the two clubs.

A week earlier, this also happened in De Kuip in Rotterdam, during a match between Feyenoord and PSV:

De Kuip claps: fans Feyenoord and PSV reflect on terminally ill PSV press secretary

More than two-thirds of all new registrations for stem cell donation are men. The Matchis foundation speaks of a unique growth, although the reason is sad. “Of course we look at it with mixed feelings,” says Elbertse. “But it is good that stem cell donation is now receiving so much attention, with thousands of registrations and many questions from people who want information.”

In total, about 400,000 Dutch people are registered as stem cell donors, but only a very small number of them are called up every year. For this purpose, the so-called tissue typing of donor and patient must match as much as possible. Last year, 247 people eventually donated stem cells to patients in need.

Cotton swabs

“The chance is more than 90 percent that you will never be called up as a stem cell donor,” says Elbertse. He calls on people who have signed up to complete their registration as soon as possible. Those who register as a donor are sent home cotton swabs to take a sample of the mucous membranes of the cheek.

“Many people don’t do that right away,” says Elbertse. He emphasizes that people cannot be called up until they have returned the package containing the cotton swabs to Matchis. First, they are examined in the laboratory to see if they are suitable as donors.

“If everyone who has registered in recent weeks returns their cotton swabs, we will exceed 400,000 donors in total,” says Elbertse. Next week, the Matchis foundation will start a campaign in which, among other things, attention is drawn to the return of the buccal mucosa.

NOS op 3 made this video about stem cell donation last year:

In addition to stem cell donation, PSV press secretary Slegers drew attention to donating blood in his tweet. Several thousand people then registered as a donor at the Sanquin blood bank, the Eindhovens Dagblad reported last week.

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