Important help

Police now “on the lookout” for stem cell donors

Red Cross volunteers supported the young police officers during the tympization process.(Bild: Attila Molnar)

Every typing can save lives: the police and the Red Cross are now joining forces to register stem cells. In St. Pölten, police students put themselves at the service of a good cause.

"Sticks in, be a hero!" is now also the motto within the police force. In order to help people suffering from blood cancer, the law enforcement officers and the Red Cross are now joining forces to donate stem cells. This is because leukemia is the most common form of cancer, especially in children.

Simple and completely painless
With a simple mouth swab, you are not only typed, but also registered as a donor. Last year, 1156 donors were already registered in the ranks of the executive. Early on Friday morning, police students in St. Pölten put themselves at the service of a good cause by being typed as stem cell donors as part of the Austria-wide cooperation.

The swabs are placed in an envelope and examined in the laboratory.(Bild: Attila Molnar)

A life-saving five minutes
"If you have the opportunity, you have to do it," explains a police student. Using cotton swabs, the "sample" is taken from the inside of the cheek for 30 seconds. Packed in an envelope, everything is done after five minutes. One thing proves how important and, above all, how life-saving these five minutes can be for another person: the chance of finding a suitable donor is 1 in 500,000. Only one in ten registered donors is ever called.

In a stem cell donation, blood is taken and the donor's cells are filtered out.(Bild: Attila Molnar)

More chances of therapy
 The more typings, the higher the chance of a "match" - and thus the chance of a saving stem cell therapy. All people up to the age of 35 are eligible (www.stammzelle.at). If there is a "match", the donor's cells are filtered out and passed on, as with a plasma donation.