SPEECH BY SMS DR JANIL PUTHUCHEARY AT THE BONE MARROW DONOR PROGRAMME'S "MATCH FOR LIFE"

Mr Abhijit Raha, President, Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP)

Mr Charles Loh, CEO, BMDP

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen

Good afternoon. Thank you very much for inviting me to join you here at Match for Life. This event, like the work of BMDP, represents hope and compassion. For 31 years, BMDP has been a lifeline. It has been connecting patients in urgent need of marrow transplants with donors who give them a second chance at life.

2.             BMDP has facilitated over 1,000 transplants and has grown Singapore’s only marrow donor registry to over 123,000 donors. As you have just heard from Mr Charles Loh, only about one in three patients are able to find a suitable match in Singapore. Minority populations, in particular, have a difficult time finding suitable donors.

3.             The demand for donors continues to rise while we battle against donor dropout. Let me explain why. When a patient requires a bone marrow transplant, doctors will first assess the siblings for a match. But our family sizes are reducing. Our families are getting smaller. My father was one of 10 siblings. My mother was one of five siblings. I have one brother. That is a huge change over a few generations. The family sizes are getting smaller. That is happening across the entire society. But if you need a donor match, it means you are less likely to have siblings that can match with you. Today, 70% of patients who need transplants will have to seek help from a bone marrow registry.

4.             The BMDP is linked to overseas registries. This allows us to expand the search for potential donors but there is still a need to expand the local registry. We need more donors. But there is something different about us here in Singapore. We are a very diverse society. We come from many different backgrounds, many different ethnicities. The unique ethnic make-up of our society means that the likelihood of a match – because your match does rely on your genetics, it does take into account your ethnicity – it means that in order to rely on our local registry, the number of donors in that local registry has to be even greater. If you are all the same race, all the same background, all the same ethnicity, it is easier to find a match. What we need to make sure that we have a diversity of donors in our registry, just like in our society, we have a diversity of Singaporeans. We have to increase the number of donors, especially donors from backgrounds that are less represented. You have heard from Charles on how the Indian community, the Malay community, are underrepresented as donors. We have to make a special effort to reach out to them, to educate them, to encourage them to donate.

Enhancing Bone Marrow Donation

5.             To address some of their anxieties and fears, we have to address and understand the attitudes, the misconceptions, the barriers that people face when they are considering marrow donation. The national survey conducted by BMDP provides us with some insights into how people think, how people feel about the idea of donating their bone marrow. It is important. It gives us an opportunity to understand the knowledge gaps, the attitudes in public, and make sure that we as a community can come together and address these.

6.             One of the easy things that people misunderstand is what does it mean to be a marrow donor. When people hear “bone marrow”, they think it is something very frightening. But for many donors, the experience is not very different from giving blood. If you are prepared to be a blood donor, it is not so different to be a bone marrow donor. But more than half of our population do not know how they can contribute to saving lives through the BMDP. This highlights the need for greater public education and greater public awareness.

7.             Misconceptions remain widespread. Many believe that marrow donation involves extracting bone. The bone is not what is removed. Being able to donate your blood cells or these special cells that allow you to be on the BMDP, is not harmful to you, the donor. This is part of your body that will grow back again. You don’t lose anything in the short term. You give, you donate, it grows back for you, but it also grows in the recipient and that is where you have been able to help save a life. We need to be able to provide credible information. We also need for the public to be able to seek out this credible information, consult trusted medical sources if you are interested to find out more about marrow donation. We hope that if you understand what is really involved, more people who are eligible can step forward, more people who are able to can register and more lives can be saved.

8.             One of the findings in the survey was about workplace support. 41% of the people who responded to the survey expressed uncertainty about the support that they would receive from their employers about bone marrow donation. Nearly 20% cited the lack of compensation for time off as a barrier to donating. This tells us that a supportive workplace can help to save lives. To the employers who are represented here today, your support for your staff, flexible work arrangements, paid time off to someone who has donated. These types of efforts go a long way to support someone in need.

9.             One example that highlights the critical role of workplace support in saving lives is the story of Tan Yu Ren, a marrow donor. While in training with the Singapore Police Force, Yu Ren was matched with a recipient. He was already on the registry. He was matched with a recipient, and this then required him to attend medical checkups. At that time, he had a very intensive training schedule as part of the Singapore Police Force. When his supervisors at Jurong Police Division recognised what he was doing had significant life-saving potential, they provided their full support. They coordinated closely with his trainers, they adjusted his training requirements and reduced his risk of injury. This flexible and compassionate approach made it possible for Yu Ren then to become a donor and to save a life.

10.          Inspired by this experience, he has since become an advocacy volunteer with BMDP. He is sharing his journey and encouraging others. Just last year, Yu Ren had a unique opportunity. He met his recipient, the recipient of his donor unit. This was a private meet-up facilitated by BMDP. He was able to meet his recipient. This story is a testament to how a supportive workplace – Jurong Police Division, shout out to you, Singapore Police Force, thank you very much – can empower and enable individuals to make a profound impact on others' lives.

11.          I would also like to take a moment to share about BMDP’s coffee table book. It is called Saving Lives Together, we are launching that today. It is a tribute to the courage, the compassion of those people who make bone marrow transplants possible. It features powerful and inspiring stories of donors, recipients, partners, volunteers, and the dedicated staff, including the staff of BMDP, who worked tirelessly to make these matches possible. I hope through this book, you can all be inspired to join BMDP in their mission, offering many the very precious gift of a second chance at life.

Closing

12.          If you have ever considered becoming a marrow donor, now is the time. To the employers, your support can change lives. I encourage you to offer support to your staff, your teams who step forward. And to the media, please help to raise the awareness of this very important programme. All of these - awareness, flexibility, coming together as a community, willing to donate, willing to register - all of this is important, working together for the important work that the BMDP does.

13.          Thank you very much to BMDP for your vision of providing hope for patients with leukaemia and blood-related diseases. It requires a whole-of-society effort. Together we can save more lives. Thank you very much.