You have the power to save a life
A blood cancer diagnosis is a shock and often marks the start of a race against time. For many patients, their only chance of survival is to find a matching blood stem cell donor as quickly as possible.
This is at the heart of the DKMS mission - to find matching donors for every patient.
What is blood cancer and how does it affect the patients we work with?
Our blood flows through blood vessels to supply all the bodily tissues with nutrients. In the approximately 5 liters of blood circulating in our body, there are billions of blood cells that carry out various vital functions. All blood cells originate from hematopoietic stem cells. Immature or abnormal cells are called cancer cells. Rapidly producing cancer cells flood the bloodstream and drive out healthy cells. As a result, the blood can no longer perform its basic tasks, such as transporting oxygen and protecting the body from infection.
Register is easy and the first step to be a potential donor.
- Register online and receive a swab kit at your address.
- After getting your kit, swab your cheeks following kit instructions.
- Return your kit to DKMS. It is all free of cost.
- Done! You are on the waitlist. Don't forget to keep your contact information updated.
We are making a difference.
Founded in 1991, DKMS is dedicated to the fight against blood cancers and blood disorders by creating awareness, recruiting potential donors to provide a second chance at life, raising funds to match donor registration costs, and supporting the improvement of blood cancer therapies by our own research.
We also support patients from day one of their diagnoses, providing family and friends with a positive way to get involved by organizing bone marrow donor drives that can enhance your donor search, rally community support, and provide hope.
We create awareness of blood cancer diseases and treatments.
- We recruit stem cell donors to give those in need of a stem cell donation a second chance at life.
- We engage the public as well as companies to organize donor registration events.
- We raise funds to increase both the size and diversity of the worldwide pool of available stem cell donors.
- We help to improve blood cancer treatment – through our own research and state-of-the-art technology in our laboratory
- We maintain our donor relationship from day one of registration until stem cell donation.
30 years of DKMS.
Our story began with one family fighting to save someone they loved. When Mechtild Harf was told that the only treatment for her leukemia was a bone marrow transplant, she had no matching family members.
