The eigth edition of World Marrow Donor Day not only focused on thanking all voluntary stem cell donors worldwide; this year we also wanted promote diversity.
The global registry has over 40 million donors (WMDA Total Number of Donors and Cord blood units), but with a total global population of 7.96 billion people, that’s only 0,5 %. Most of our donors are of European descent, and unfortunately, this means that, especially for patients with a different ethnic background, it can be challenging to find a matching

donor. The reason for this, is that our immune systems are so ingenious and specific that the best chances to find a match are within the direct family. In about 50% of the cases a donor can be found within the family. For the other 50% a stem cell transplant with cells from an unrelated donor is often the only chance they have for survival.

To be able to provide a cure for all patients worldwide, the global registry needs to grow and diversify. Therefore, we created a series of pictures that show diversity, without actually using the word ‘diversity’, because we figured that sometimes a picture says it better than words and the above explanation might be complicated for people to understand.

Each year, the World Marrow Donor Association, initiator and organiser of World Marrow Donor Day, offers prizes for the best and most original events. Over the last years we’ve seen WMDD grow into an event that’s celebrated by a large community of stakeholders in the field of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and donation. That’s why this year, we decided to update our prizes accordingly. We added the ‘Best TikToks Prize’ which replaced the ‘Incentive Prize’, to stimulate promotion of WMDD through the popular TikTok platform to reach a young audience.
We also added two new prizes:

1. The ‘Community Prize’ for a stakeholder or affiliate in the field of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and donation that stands out during WMDD. This can be a transplant centers, a collection center, a (former) patient, or a donor, to name a few options.
2. The ‘Corporate Advocate Prize’ is for a company that supports WMDD as a sponsor and that raises awareness to stimulate their customers and staff to become a stem cell donor and spread the word in the most outstanding way.

The winners were:

Watch the recording and be inspired by how the winners and nominees organised their day: