SOUTAMPTON University volunteers are celebrating 20 years of saving lives.

This year marks the 20th academic year that students have helped save lives with blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan, recruiting 3,670 potential stem cell donors onto the UK register.

‘Marrow’ is the name for Anthony Nolan’s student volunteer network, and Southampton Marrow at Southampton University will hold a series of fundraising and donor recruitment events as part of a year-long celebration to raise awareness of the need for more stem cell donors.

Over the last 16 year, the Southampton Marrow has held over 100 awareness events for the work that Anthony Nolan does to support families and patients with blood cancer, with over 35 student volunteers going on to donate stem cells.

Chris Knowles, a second-year nursing student and President of Southampton Marrow, said: “Southampton Marrow committee are all proud to be a part of the life-saving work that Anthony Nolan does through UK universities. Our goal as a committee is to continue the excellent work our predecessors did before us.

"Marrow is proudly celebrating its 20th year of saving lives, and we hope as a committee to continue the legacy on, by recruiting even more donors to the UK stem cell register. We want to say a big thank you to every single Southampton student who has signed up to the register at our events over the years and another huge thank you and a very big welcome to those who will join this year."

Charlotte Cunliffe, Marrow Programme Lead, said: ‘This year, our wonderful Marrow community is proud to be celebrating 20 years of saving lives. The impressive and often creative efforts of our volunteers from Southampton Marrow in recruiting donors has helped Anthony Nolan to recruit more than 130,000 potential donors. Our work in universities is vital, because it allows us to reach a young and diverse group of people. We are excited about the next 20 years and are looking forward to spreading the word about the lifesaving potential of students on campuses across Southampton.’

Marrow began in 1998 when James Kustow, a student at The University of Nottingham, was having dinner with some friends when he received a call from his mother. A childhood friend of his, Karen, had been diagnosed with leukaemia and needed a bone marrow transplant to survive.

Banding together with his friends, James organised a hugely successful recruitment event on campus to try and get more people to join the Anthony Nolan register. James and his fellow volunteers decided to put together a team to run regular events and raise awareness for years to come. They called it Marrow.

Sadly, Karen’s leukaemia came back after her transplant and she died four months later – but her legacy lives on in the Marrow groups which were set up to help her and many more people like her. Marrow has gone from strength to strength; more than 1,500 people recruited by our student volunteers have gone on to donate their stem cells to patients in need. To this day Marrow continue work hard to save the lives of people with blood cancer.