sapnagroup director Jonny Hubner has been registered in the DKMS database since 2004. At this time the family of a young leukaemia patient in Bamberg raised awareness in the media and many people from Bamberg got themselves registered. Five years later Jonny got a letter that his tissue characteristics might match a patient. He supplied another blood sample and it was confirmed. After a proper health check the donation happened in two sessions in a hospital in Nuremberg. For fives days before the donation he had to inject himself a special drugs twice a day to make his body create more stem cells then usually. These extra stem cells were filtered from the blood (see photo) and then given as a transplant to a 45 year female patient in England. Jonny donated the payment he received for the loss of earnings and travel expenses to the DKMS. From this money they can add 11 more potential donors to their database.

The DKMS Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei (German Bone Marrow Donor Center) is a charitable trust with more than 2.150.611 registered donors, making it the largest stem cell donor data bank in the world. In the last 18 years more than 20.607 DKMS donors donated their stem cells and gave patients a new chance of life.

Find out more about the DKMS