Marking Five Years in the UK

We’re marking our fifth year anniversary in the UK and we wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported us over this period.

We’ve been dedicated to the fight against blood cancer through recruiting blood stem cell donors and have helped provide people with second chances at life over the past five years.

DKMS in the UK is part of a wider global not-for-profit organisation that started in Germany in 1991 around one family’s search for a donor.

UK presence of DKMS in numbers

Since launching we’ve registered nearly 350,000 potential lifesavers in the UK, making over 7.8 million people registered with DKMS worldwide.

Every day, around 200 potential blood stem cell donors register with us and so far, over 400 second chances at life have been provided by donors registered with DKMS in the UK – which is incredible.

Meet our first donor

Shuhel Miah, the first DKMS donor in the UK

Londoner Shuhel Miah (then 21) was our first UK donor to ever donate having registered at an event in the summer of 2013.

Shuhel went on to donate his blood stem cells through a peripheral blood stem cell collection at King’s College Hospital at the start of 2014.

Shuhel at the time said: “I was very happy to have the opportunity to potentially save a life.”

How can you help?

Every 20 minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with a blood cancer, such as leukaemia, myeloma or lymphoma. Every year, around 2,000 blood cancer patients in the UK are in need of a blood stem cell donation to get a second chance at life. Many never find the match they need. This is why we need even more people to register as potential lifesavers.

If you would like to register, check your eligibility and sign up as a potential blood stem cell donor today. Anyone between the ages of 17-55 and in general good health can go on standby as a potential lifesaver.