LOCAL MP Stephen Doughty signed up as a potential stem cell donor at a parliamentary event organised by ‘the world’s leading rock and roll cancer foundation’.
The Love Hope Strength Foundation (LHSF) is urging as many people as possible to sign up for the International Bone Marrow Registry, and the event in parliament – which was run in partnership with Delete Blood Cancer UK – encouraged MPs to lead by example and send a positive message to the nation. LHSF, which was registered as a charity in 2007, was co-founded by Mike Peters – two-times cancer survivor and internationally acclaimed singer of Welsh rock band The Alarm.
The charity aims to raise awareness and recruit potential donors to the organ and bone marrow registers. It also promotes innovative, musi c related, outreach and awareness programmes for leukaemia and cancer sufferers, survivors and their families.
Cardiff South and Penarth MP Stephen Doughty said: “I have friends and family members who have been affected by leukaemia, so I was delighted to sign up to the register.
“Half of the people in Britain who need a lifesaving stem cell donation do not find a match, so the more people who register, the better. It is a straightforward, quick and painless process, with just a consent form and a cheek swab, and I would urge constituents to sign up if they can.”
Anyone aged 18 to 55 and in good general health can sign up. Details are stored anonymously on a national register. For information visit www.deletebloodcancer.org.uk * For more on LHSF visit www.lovehopestrength.co.uk