overview

Overview

Tackling Leukaemia Inc (T/A Rugby Tackles Leukaemia) is a registered charity with DGR status and a ‘Not for Profit’ grass-roots organisation whose aims are to increase the level of donation of stem cells from members of the Pasifika and Indigenous diasporas in concert with the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR).

Leukaemia is an insidious form of blood cancer with many types. It attacks without warning and does not discriminate between gender, age, or race. Treatment for leukaemia generally involves a process whereby cancerous cells are killed off via radiation and/or chemotherapy. These cells are then replaced by stem cells which can continue the fight within the patient’s body. Donor stem cells for allogenic stem cell transplant can come from family members of the patient or from a world-wide (mostly European) bank of registered donors. Unfortunately, Australia has one of the world’s lowest per capita rates of bone marrow donation.

Members of the Pasifika and Australian Indigenous diaspora in many cases have rare blood types and the stem cells from non-Pasifika and Indigenous donors are usually not a suitable “match” for them.

For these reasons, the outcome for members of the Pasifika diaspora afflicted by this disease is generally terminal. It is believed that a similar situation exists within the Indigenous communities.

Project Description

Tackling Leukaemia Inc is attempting to redress this imbalance by contacting Rugby Union players in Australia through their clubs to become possible stem cell donors. The matching process no longer involves the taking of a blood sample initially, but a simple mouth swab test has been available and in use for some time. Power House Rugby Union Club in Melbourne fathered this initiative of direct collection via mouth swabs after one its members (a former Senior Victorian Representative player and Life Member of the Club), Peter Selby who was of Māori heritage, died of leukaemia. A death that may have been prevented had a suitable donor been found.

Prior to COVID-19 restrictions, in 2021 all Power House Rugby Club 1st Grade players who were eligible to donate were approached by our organisation, swabbed and have registered as potential ABMDR donors. Similarly, the Melbourne Rebels Super Rugby team also embraced this initiative and the entire 2021 squad were swabbed and signed up as potential donors.

It is planned to expand our organisation’s base of potential donors to include all Rugby Union clubs in Australia, as well as other sporting codes and their Pasifika and Indigenous members, as the fit 18 – 35-year-olds actively playing sport are the “target group” for stem cell donations for this diaspora.

Tackling Leukaemia Inc is an official partner of the ABMDR and their Strength to Give donor swab collection program that is currently suspended pending further government funding. In the meantime, Tackling Leukaemia Inc will be continuing the program by sourcing independent funding for the processing of the kits.

The current donor swab kits include Donor Kit information brochure, 4 swabs, swab envelope, postage-paid return envelope for swabs.

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