Darren Combrink is using his own two feet to raise funds for the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR) to recruit more donors!
Cape Town, South Africa – On the 30th of March 2019, Digital Media Producer and founder of Walking For Life, Darren Combrink (45) from Cape Town will complete as many laps as “humanly possible”, from Myog Frozen Yogurt in Kloof Street to Myog in Camps Bay for a cause close to his heart.
Since the launch of his Walking for Life initiative in January 2018, Darren has remained committed to supporting the South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR), a public benefit organisation that matches critically ill children and adults in need of transplants with donor matches. He has thus far completed six projects, walking a total distance of 930 km.
His latest challenge is the Myog Challenge where he is walking from the frozen yoghurt branch to the other to raise awareness. He plans on doing laps between the two shops passing over the famous mountain pass up Kloof Nek Road. The pass is the 24th steepest in South Africa, which will take quite the strain on Darren’s damaged knee.
He hopes to complete at least six laps, a distance of 32,4 kilometres, up the steep gradient to honour a young man’s plea to increase the SABMR’s donor database.
Robbie Eddles (17), a grade 11 student from Durban, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Anaemia at the age of 5 is currently waiting on a bone marrow donor match that could save his life. We shared his story in February of this year to help him get more people registered as bone marrow donors.
“I want there to be more donors. We are all each other’s tomorrow. Anyone can donate and should donate. If not for me, then do it for someone else. Because when all is taken into consideration, I am because we are. What’s harder than leukaemia? Seeing your loved ones experiencing it from the outside. And not being able to save you.” – Robbie Eddles
Echoing Robbie’s message, that has since encouraged over 7000 new donor applications, Darren launched a crowdfunding campaign on donations based crowdfunding platform, BackaBuddy, to appeal to the public to help cover the costs of donor recruitment, which costs around R2000 per recipient, at no cost to the donor. The influx in donors has meant a significant cost to the SABMR, and Darren hopes to balance out the good with more good.
The campaign went live on BackaBuddy on the 26 February 2019 has thus far raised R68,106.64 with contributions from 364 donors.
Darren hopes the public will continue supporting his BackaBuddy campaign for people like Robbie.
“Robbie is a brave, intelligent, funny, kind and incredibly loving human being, who is sadly living on the verge. His bone marrow is 90% leukemic and he doesn’t have a matching donor. Without a bone marrow match, he is running out of time. I hope my campaign will be a beacon of hope for this young man and so many others in a similar situation. I would like to challenge the people of South Africa to join us, become a donor and support our BackaBuddy campaign!” says – Darren Combrink
According to SABMR, Sustainability Portfolio Manager, Kamiel Singh, there are currently only 73 000 donors registered on the site to cater to over 57 million South Africans.
“Every year, hundreds of South Africans with blood diseases such as leukaemia reach the point where their only chance of survival is a bone marrow transplant. For about 30% of patients, a matched donor can be found in their own family; for the other 70%, their only hope is to find a matched unrelated donor identified by our database.” – says Sustainability Portfolio Manager at the SABMR, Kamiel Singh.
There’s an even greater need for donors of African descent, says Kamiel, a message highlighted by Freshlyground lead singer, Zolani Mahola, who became a bone marrow donor two years ago after her friend’s passing.
“As a nation, we have a rich history of Ubuntu and we must continually find new ways of expressing it. With many of our donors coming from overseas, we need more donors of African descent. With the procedure itself not being the onerous and painful task it used to be, we have so much potential to make a difference at home” – said Zolani
Donate on BackaBuddy to support The South African Bone Marrow Registry in recruiting new donors. All donors will qualify for special prizes and be eligible for a section 18A tax certificate issued by the SABMR.
You can donate to the BackaBuddy crowdfund here to help cover the costs of new donors and register with the SABMR online, you can see how below.
How to become a registered bone marrow donor
- Register Online (here)
- You must be between 18 & 45 years old.
- No blood or needles involved, just a cheek swab.
- Registering is free of charge
- If you do not qualify to be a bone marrow donor, you can donate financially to SABMR to help them cover the costs of testing and swab kits.
Sources: Supplied
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