1. Your ethnic background influences your genetic make up - that means you’re more likely to be a matching donor for someone who shares your ethnic heritage
But there’s a shortage of donors from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds – this makes it much harder for patients from these backgrounds who need a stem cell transplant, blood transfusion or organ donation.
Currently, 60% of white stem cell transplant recipients get the best possible match – but this drops to just 20.5% if the patient is from a BAME background.
1.6 million people donated blood in the UK last year – but only 3% of them were from black, Asian or minority ethnic communities. Black donors are needed because certain blood diseases, like sickle cell disease, are more common in black populations. These people are more likely to have the blood group RO which is needed to treat patients with sickle cell disease.
Statistically, people in BAME communities are also more likely to need an organ transplant than the rest of the population as they are more susceptible to illnesses such as diabetes, which may result in organ failure and the need for a transplant.
But they wait twice as long for a transplant as a white patient (two years rather than one year) – because of a shortage of BAME donors.