HAVING just completed my internship, including a month's training in a paediatric oncology ward, I saw the tragedy of patients and families desperate to get compatible bone marrow for definitive therapy.
When I heard a radio discussion on Aldrich Syndrome - an immunodeficient hereditary disease which also needs bone marrow transplant for a cure - I had an idea. Could preliminary blood testing for bone marrow typing be performed on all blood donated at the Red Cross? At present there are irregular appeal campaigns for testing for bone marrow typing. Under my suggested scheme, the testing would cover a much larger population and would be more accessible.
If the resultant typing was compatible, a letter of notification could be sent to the donor who would then make his or her choice. I am a regular blood donor and I would not feel this was an imposition. Whether or not I was willing to go any further would be entirely up to me. It would be a chance for th ose who were willing to help, but had just not gone during the irregular campaigns.
I am not acquainted with the sophisticated procedures involved in bone marrow typing, but I hope the problems involved and the feasibility of my suggestion, could be evaluated by the relevant body.
CHEUNG YUET-CHOW, GLORIA Kowloon
