Bone marrow donation can save life without bringing harm to the donor. However, in traditional Chinese way of thinking, bone marrow donation is a very dangerous activity which ought to be totally avoided whenever possible. To address such concerns and dispel any fears associated with bone marrow donation operation, Tzu Chi Foundation (Singapore Branch) invited Dr Michelle Poon Li Mei, who is the Registrar from NUH, Haematology Department to conduct a talk on bone marrow donation on 3rd November 2007. A total of more than 60 attendees turned up for this educational event held at Jing Si Hall of Tzu Chi Foundation (Singapore Branch).

To raise public awareness and dispel any fears associated with bone marrow donation operation, Tzu Chi Foundation (Singapore Branch) invited Dr Michelle Poon Li Mei, who is the Registrar from NUH, Haematology Department to conduct a talk on bone marrow donation on 3rd November 2007.

Bone marrow donation can save life without bringing harm to the donor. However, in traditional Chinese way of thinking, bone marrow donation is a very dangerous activity which ought to be totally avoided whenever possible. To address such concerns and dispel any fears associated with bone marrow donation operation, Tzu Chi Foundation (Singapore Branch) invited Dr Michelle Poon, who is the Registrar from NUH, Haematology Department to conduct a talk on bone marrow donation on 3rd November 2007. A total of more than 60 attendees turned up for this educational event held at Jing Si Hall of Tzu Chi Foundation (Singapore Branch).

The prelude to that day’s talk started with a short video clip featuring Master Cheng Yen, explaining how we should wholeheartedly support bone marrow donation, followed by some excerpts from the Da Ai documentary, Great Love as a Running Water.

Next, Dr Poon presented a clear and thorough explanation of the entire bone marrow donation process and the theories behind it. Using pictures, Dr Poon explained to the attendees, how the whole process of bone marrow donation starts with matching, donation and finally to transplantation. As for the success rate, it is only 1 in 10,000 chance of a compatible match in the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) between strangers and 1 in 4 chance of perfect match amongst close siblings. Hence, the blood disease patients would really need the life-saving bone marrow donation or they may not have any chance of recovery.  

In response to Master Cheng Yen’s appeal of “saving a life without bringing harm to self,” Tzu Chi established the first bone marrow donor registry in 1993 in Taiwan to help patients with blood diseases. It has since become the largest marrow donor registry in Asia and the fifth largest data bank in the world. In 1997, the Tzu Chi Gene Immunology Lab was established. In 2002, the bone marrow registry became a division of the new Tzu Chi Stem Cells Center, which was founded to improve research and treatment of blood disease patients.

According to Dr Poon, bone marrow extraction process requires the donor to undergo a surgery under general anesthesia where the surgeon will make use of a special needle to extract from the donor’s pelvic bone about 100ml of bone marrow. The extracted bone marrow is in liquid form and will have to be infused into the body of the recipient patient within 24 hours. There will not be much pain after operation, although some donor will experience slight pain at the pelvic area. The donor can resume normal daily activities after a few days and their bone marrow will be able to re-grow in 4 to 6 weeks’ time.

Before the donation, the recipient patient’s marrow will have to be first killed off with drugs or radiation, and then the new stem cells are introduced. As a result, the patient’s good cells could be destroyed too. In the event that the donor changes his mind before donation of bone marrow, it could be life threatening for the recipient. Hence, it is important that the donor should consider very carefully before giving his consent to become a bone marrow donor.
As for cord blood donation, it is a process to collect the blood from the new born infants’ umbilical cord and placenta after a baby is born. However, it has limited supply as it is only available from new born infants.

Any healthy person between 18 to 60 years old can potentially be a bone marrow donor. The process of becoming a bone marrow donor starts with a simple blood test whereby a few drops of blood will be collected from the finger tips and the details stored into the bone marrow database. With each new potential donor’s details being added into the bone marrow database, it increases the possibility of one in 10,000 chance of HLA matching between strangers. Only when there is a perfect match, then the bone marrow donor will be informed. Before extraction of the bone marrow, the attending doctor will brief the donor on the full details related to the bone marrow donation, including its risks and any potential side effects, so as to ensure that the donor will be fully aware of the entire process. All costs incurred will be absorbed by the bone marrow recipient.

There is such a Buddhist saying, “Ability to save a life is worth more than anything else.” Dr Poon emphasized, bone marrow donation creates the precious opportunity for allowing the blood disease patients to have a new leash of life. So far, there isn’t any medical record showing that it will cause any harm to the donor. Throughout the donation process, the donor will be well taken care of by the medical team. In addition, Dr Poon appealed to the donor to update the bone marrow registry if they shift house or change their contact numbers. This is to facilitate the bone marrow registry to inform the donor in case a perfect match is found, or otherwise the blood disease patient and their family will be utterly disappointed should the match is found and yet the donor becomes un-contactable.