Blood brothers: Irish have better odds of donor match

IRELAND’S diaspora have spread Irish culture and customs far and wide, but they may also have dispersed a life-saving legacy.

Irish blood is now so widely distributed that it can be a help in finding a match for patients awaiting bone marrow transplants.

Professor Paul Browne of Trinity College Dublin said: “I’ve been told, for example, that if you’re in Australia and you need to have a transplant, you’re best off having an Irish pedigree because it will be easier to find a match.”

Prof Browne was one of over 20 international medical experts speaking at a weekend conference of the World Marrow Donor Association in Dublin which discussed the latest developments in transplant research, procedures and therapies.

He offered hope for Irish patients awaiting transplants – typically for leukaemia and other blood disorders that have failed to respond to drug treatments – saying that they have a better than 80% chance of finding a suitable donor.

He also reported good survival rates for transplant recipients, with over half of patients still alive five years after the procedure.

Ireland has around 24,000 potential donors on a panel managed by the Irish Unrelated Bone Marrow Registry, but the registry works in conjunction with 58 other facilities in 48 countries, giving patients here access to 14 million donors worldwide.

Stem cells from donated bone marrow are used when a patient’s own marrow – the source of all new blood cells – stops producing. Once stem cells are transplanted, they start the process of producing new blood cells again.

Usually the most suitable donor is a close family member, but falling family sizes means the options are getting more limited for many patients, which is why facilities like the Irish Unrelated Bone Marrow Registry – which signs up donors willing to donate to anyone anywhere in the world – is so important.

Prof Browne said transplant recipients were typically acutely ill, and tended to be among the younger patients, but the age and type of patients was expanding all the time.

He said around 35 Irish patients were receiving unrelated transplants each year compared with just two in the early 1990s when the registry was in its infancy.

Anyone interested in becoming a potential donor can find out more from the Irish Blood Transfusion Service or on the Bone Marrow Registry section of the website www.giveblood.ie.