The South African Bone Marrow Registry (SABMR) was founded in Cape Town in 1991 with a single mission: to save lives. As an accredited member of the World Marrow Donor Association, the SABMR is dedicated to helping patients in need find their match.

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Bone marrow is the tissue in the body where blood cells are produced. Blood cells are critical to a person’s immune system: they carry oxygen, fight infection, and prevent bleeding. A transplant replaces the patient’s diseased bone marrow with healthy bone marrow stem cells so that the patient can start producing healthy blood.

But for that to happen, a donor must be found with a matching bone marrow tissue type amongst thousands of tissue types. Even with over 39 million donors registered around the world, many patients in desperate need do not find their donors in time and do not survive.

That’s why they need to keep registering donors: to give every patient an equal chance at finding a match. You could be a match for a patient who’s right now waiting on their miracle donor. Click here to register.