DMU’s award-winning Square Mile is backing a new campaign launched by a Leicestershire police officer who beat leukaemia to turn Leicester into a lifesaving city.
Leicester City and England legends Gary Lineker and Emile Heskey are just two of those backing Rik Basra’s #PassItOnLeicester campaign, which will run every day in September to mark Blood Cancer Awareness Month. It will see organisations across Leicester unite to try and sign up as many people as possible to join the Anthony Nolan national stem cell register.
CAMPAIGN: Rik, left, with the DMU Square Mile team
Last year, the Rik Basra Leukaemia Campaign and DMU Square Mile jointly organised the #Raceto1000 event at DMU’s Campus Centre, and over the course of just one day a record-breaking 1,020 16-30 year olds joined the register - potentially saving thousands of lives.
Now, 31 groups from across Leicestershire, including DMU Square Mile, have teamed up with the campaign to host donor recruitment drives and awareness events every day throughout September – one on each day of the month – to pass on the vital message that it is easy to donate stem cells and save lives.
The month will come to a head on the final day on September 31 held at DMU after similar events at the King Power stadium, Leicester Tigers, the Highcross, the city council, Leicestershire Police and many other high-profile Leicestershire organisations.
Rik Basra said: "Amazingly, the local community have made Leicester and Leicestershire second only to London for stem cell donor recruitment in the whole of the UK.
“We want to build on that solid foundation. We aim to show just how easy it is to save a life and really mobilise everyone to get involved and help do something about it and really make Leicester a lifesaving city in every sense of the word.
“DMU Square Mile are consummate professionals and without doubt a safe pair of hands to lay on a spectacular finale to what I'm sure is going to be an amazing month of activities."
David Hollis, Operations Manager at DMU Square Mile, said: “This is yet another great opportunity to support the lifesaving work of the Rik Basra Leukaemia Campaign and Anthony Nolan.
“DMU hosted a phenomenal event last year in October with Race to 1,000, where our students helped sign up a record-breaking 1,020 people onto the NHS stem cell register over the course of a single day, with that record still standing today.
“This new event will be truly unique and will showcase Leicester for what it is – a lifesaving city, and we are proud to be able to lend our support.”
Run by the Anthony Nolan Trust, the stem cell register exists to match potential bone marrow donors to blood cancer patients in desperate need of a lifesaving transplant.
Rik Basra’s life was saved after he received a bone marrow transplant from an anonymous donor through Anthony Nolan in 2011. Rik and his family have campaigned tirelessly ever since to recruit more donors to the register and went on to set up The Rik Basra Leukaemia Campaign.
Posted on Thursday 23 July 2015