Meadia Release - English

18 February 2007

Would you save a life, if you could?

With the only cost being fifteen minutes of your time – why not provide a blood sample and place your name on the bone marrow donor registry –it could save the grief of a family and the life of their loved one?

You may or may not know Ivana Prijic, she is us just like most other young Serbians living in Perth, she is 27 years old and up until last December Ivana was perfectly healthy. She married Damir last April and they had just returned from a trip to Serbia and Europe.

However in December last year she was hospitalized with a high temperature, which turned out to be her only symptom for leukemia. It turned that the cliché was true, ‘cancer could target absolutely anyone'. We never thought it could happen to our family, but this time it had.

However, Ivana is just one patient from 1000 around the world waiting, with the clock ticking, for someone with her specific bone marrow match to register soon.

“Honestly it's a frightening prospect, its has turned my family's life upside down, my husband and I were married in April and were planning on starting a family before being told about the leukemia a few months ago.

“I now find myself depending on the goodwill of stranger to save my life – its one day, one moment at a time from this point on”, said Ivana.

With only one in 1000 possible donors ever being asked to donate in any on year – the chances of being called up to donate are slim and that is why the Bone Marrow Donor Centre needs as many willing people on the registry as possible.

A 10ml blood sample is all that it takes to register and the criteria is far less stringent than when donating blood (for example you can be anemic).

Like many others in the Serbian community Ivana, arrived as a refugee from the former Yugoslavia some seven years ago. Unfortunately being of Slavic decent makes her chances of finding a donor even slimmer.

Bone marrow matches are commonly found amongst people from the same ethnic group and because there are only 330 people on the list in Serbia it gives people like Ivana little chance.

That is why we are appealing to Slavic people (Serbians, Croatians, Bosnians) aged between 18-40 years to help in saving maybe Ivana's or maybe someone else's life from anywhere around the world.

Fifteen minutes of your time could mean a lifetime opportunity for Ivana – please do not delay as every minute counts.

For more information or to make an appointment to register as a donor please call Debbie Witt, Donor Coordinator, at the WA Bone Marrow Donor Centre on (08) 9421 2886.

For photo opportunities or for further media enquiries please call Jelena Stojanovic on 0427 389 928 or email stojanovic_jels@hotmail.com