Long-time Kansai resident and family man, Aidan O’Connor, needs our help. In January of this year he was diagnosed with leukaemia and unless he receives a bone marrow transplant he will not live another year. From the Save Aidan website:
No sibling was a match and no suitable donor was found in Japan because of his ethnicity. As a long-term resident of Japan, he is no longer eligible for treatment in the UK, his home country. The only hope left for him is a world-wide search, a process not covered under the Japanese National Health Insurance. Aidan needs at least ¥3, 500, 000.
You can help Aidan and his family today by donating on their website. Also consider going to your local blood bank to donate your marrow.
SITE LINK
OK, so this morning I went to a blood bank near Kyoto station and registered myself as a potential bone marrow donor. The process is super simple. You can download the registration form online, print it out and fill it out in advance. It’s short – just your name, address and a few other personal details and shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to fill out. If you can’t read the Japanese then get someone to help you. Then take that form to the blood bank. The one I went to didn’t require an appointment. I went in, handed over the form, they took a tiny blood sample and that was it. Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom. All over in 5 minutes. Seriously. It’s that easy. Now if you prove to be a match, the procedure gets a bit more complicated (you can read about that here) but not too traumatic considering that you COULD BE SAVING A MAN’S LIFE. And you can’t give a better Xmas pressie than that now, can you? Here is the list of blood banks you can go to in Kyoto. If you happen to be further afield you can find your nearest blood bank (in Japan) here. There’s a full guide to how you can become a bone marrow donor on the Save Aidan website here.
If you want to make a financial donation and help Aidan reach that ¥3, 500, 000 target for a world-wide bone marrow search then you can do so online via Paypal, or by a bank transfer. Details are here. Please consider both giving a donation and registering as a bone marrow donor. It is Christmas after all. And Aidan’s life depends on it.
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