Dear friends, November 26, marks the ninth anniversary since our dear Ana is no longer with us. In nearly nine years of the Ana Rukavina Foundation we tried to meet Anna’s mission and help those suffering from leukemia, lymphoma and many different types of blood conditions and blood cancers and we believe that thanks to Ana and her vision, some of them found their matching donor.
In 2006 Croatian Bone Marrow Donor Registry number of potential donor was 150 donors, today that number, thanks to all of you who are daily registered in the Registry and thereby increase the chance of suffering to find a matching donor, has grown to 49,932 registered potential donors, of which 47,424 typed samples.
Thanks to donors who responded to the invitation from the Registry 56 people helped those in need and that makes us particularly happy and proud.
To commemorate the day of Anna’s premature departure, we are organizing the “Open Heart Day” which will be held on Friday, 27 November 2015 from 10 AM to 6 PM in the premises of the Foundation (Kneza Mislava 10 / I, Zagreb).
We invite all citizens to come and support the action to join the Registry of voluntary hematopoietic stem cell donors. The action “Open Heart Day” is a way to remind citizens that stem cells, which we all have, are the “cure” with which we can bring health to those that are severely ill in Croatia and abroad.
All healthy people between the ages of 18 and 40 can join the Registry. The process to join the Registry includes filling in an application form and a medical questionnaire and giving a blood sample for HLA tissue typing which is the procedure for determining the tissue compatibility antigen. By joining the Registry, our fellow citizens show solidarity with those in need and confirm that their contribution, however small it may seem, can save lives. The importance of joining the Registry of voluntary hematopoietic stem cell donors and the activities of the cord blood bank “Ana Rukavina” will be explained while doctors will be available and happy to answer any questions throughout the day.