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Bone Marrow Donor Programme celebrates 21 years

SINGAPORE — The national Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP) celebrated its 21st anniversary today (31 July), with Minister for Law and Foreign Affairs K Shanmugam — the new BMDP Patron — presenting its 100th donor with a commemorative award.

Minister K Shanmugam cutting the BMDP's 21st birthday cake, along with the 100th donor Mr Lim Yun Song and student representatives.

Minister K Shanmugam cutting the BMDP's 21st birthday cake, along with the 100th donor Mr Lim Yun Song and student representatives.

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SINGAPORE — The national Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP) celebrated its 21st anniversary today (31 July), with Minister for Law and Foreign Affairs K Shanmugam — the new BMDP Patron — presenting its 100th donor with a commemorative award.

27-year-old engineer Lim Yun Song was honoured for his voluntary commitment, which saw him saving a patient’s life this May when his bone marrow was found to be a match to the patient’s and a transplant was made. The chance of finding a donor with a matching DNA profile to the patient is only 1 in 20,000.

The BMDP manages Singapore’s only registry of bone marrow donors. It has 44,000 donors on the local register to date and receives a monthly average of 50 requests for bone marrow donations.

Bone marrow transplants are now the preferred treatment for a wide number of blood-related diseases, including leukaemia and lymphoma.

Nine BMDP volunteers donated bone marrow in the first half of this year with more scheduled, up from seven volunteers in the whole of last year.

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