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Get moving to fight leukaemia
Leukaemia and other blood cancers are TMB's solidarity cause for 2023.
This year’s winning project of the ‘Choose your cause’ programme was a proposal presented by a TMB employee who recently received a donation that saved her life. Beatriz received a bone marrow transplant, having found a compatible donor in Germany through the Bone Marrow Donors Register (REDMO).
The aim of this campaign, launched in collaboration with the Josep Carreras Foundation, is to raise awareness of this group of diseases and inform people about how we can contribute to the research's progress, support those who fall ill and their families and make it easier for more patients to find a donor.
Visit the website of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Foundation.
The disease
- Some 6,000 new cases of leukaemia, 10,000 of lymphoma and 3,000 of multiple myeloma are diagnosed every year in Spain.
- Their survival rates have improved a lot, but even so, 20% of children die from these diseases, a proportion that rises to 50% in adults.
- Leukaemia is the commonest form of childhood cancer. It accounts for 30% of all childhood cancers.
Donations and patiens in figures
- There are over 40 million registered bone marrow donors worldwide.
- Spain already has over 480,000 potential bone marrow donors registered with the REDMO.
- A total of 3 out of every 4 people who need a bone marrow transplant do not have a compatible-donor relative.
- Since its creation, the REDMO has coordinated the collection, transport and infusion of over 13,000 transplants for patients from all over the world.
- The average search time to find a compatible donor is 27 days.
Action programme
- Exhibition about the campaign:
- Location: Diagonal station (L3 and L5)
- From 20 November
- Storytelling "El bebè forçut" [The strong baby]: a kids' activity for school children to discover this story publicised by the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Foundation and take part in a related educational activity.
- Location: Guinardó - Hospital Sant Pau (L4) station
- Date: 14 December during the morning
- Talk about leukemia and other oncological diseases of the blood and campaign to recruit bone marrow donors in the metro network: a space set up by staff from the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Foundation, to provide information and recruit potential donors.
- Location: Universitat station (L1 and L2)
- Date and time: 19 Desember in the afternoon
The Josep Carreras Leukaemia Foundation
The tenor Josep Carreras was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in July 1987. After a year-long fight against the disease, he recovered, returning home and to the stage.
Thanks to a group of famous scientists and business people, and to the support of his family, in 1988 he decided to set up a foundation in his name, to give back to society and the scientific community all the help and support he had received.
´So, moved by the challenge of ensuring leukaemia will one day be a 100% curable, the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Foundation has been tirelessly promoting all kinds of projects to support patients and science for over 30 years.
The Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC) was set up in 2010, one of the few centres in the world devoted exclusively to leukaemia and other blood cancers. The IJC aims to promote research development in the field of onco-haematology, speed up the application of new treatments, improve patient care and survival rates, contribute to the training of new researchers and establish synergies with other national and international research groups.
It has been managing the Spanish State's official bone marrow donor register, REDMO , in close collaboration with the public health system since 1991. Transplants from unrelated donors are the only treatment options for a large number of leukaemia patients, as only one out of every four will have a compatible-donor family member. Over nine thousand people around the world have been able to receive a transplant thanks to all the research they have been doing every day.
Patient and family support is decisive. There are six shelter apartments for patients with limited financial resources who have to travel far from home for treatment.
The foundation has an online medical enquiries service which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, providing information on diseases, transplants and social issues, among other things.
The Josep Carreras Leukaemia Foundation is funded essentially through individual and business contributions, bequests and Josep Carreras benefit concerts performed.
