OSFC Students Become Lifesavers

OSFC students became potential lifesavers on 1 May, when the college hosted a recruitment event with blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan. At the event, students had the opportunity to join the Anthony Nolan stem cell register, which the charity uses to match donors with patients in desperate need of a stem cell transplant.

The event marked the ten year anniversary of OSFC's blood donation drives, set up in memory of Pat Wells who sadly passed away from leukaemia in 2002, days before the first session took place.

Over the last ten years the College has actively educated its students about blood, organ and blood stem cell donation. It works closely with Anthony Nolan's "Register And Be A Lifesaver" (R&Be) programme, where volunteers come into schools to teach 17-18 year olds about donation.

Andrew Preston, Maths Tutor at the College who organises the blood donation sessions, said, "We're delighted to be able to offer our students the chance to sign up to the Anthony Nolan register. We encourage all our students to consider donating – whether it's their blood, organs or stem cells – because they could help save someone's life. What's more important than that?"

Jo Buckton, R&Be regional mentor, adds, "There are over 440,000 people on the Anthony Nolan register, but we can still only find a match for around half the people who come to us in need of a lifesaving transplant. We need to grow the register to provide more matches and save more lives, and as we particularly want young men aged 18-30 to sign up, working with colleges like Oldham Sixth Form is the perfect partnership for us."

If you would like to join the register, you can sign up online at www.anthonynolan.org/spit, where you simply fill in a short form and provide a small saliva sample.