The Spiroski Science Foundation is creating a marrow donor register this year in order to increase the number of donors in the country. In Macedonia for ten years there is a state register for bone marrow at the Institute of Immunobiology and Human Genetics, but the world practice, according to Professor Dr. Mirko Spirovski is to have more registers in one country, depending not on the population but on the level of public awareness of this need. There are 196 marrow donor registries in 140 countries worldwide.

- However, in addition to the state, there are donor registries in the non-governmental sector in the world and they are 56, or about 30 percent of the total donor registers in the world. Due to the need for more donors, we decided to establish the donor register within our foundation as a non-governmental organization. Although it is widely discussed whether more than one register is needed in one country, their number in different countries varies from 8, 10, 13 registers and does not depend on the number of inhabitants but on the awareness of the need for such organization. There are about 30 million registered potential donors worldwide. If someone with a malignant disease needs a donor, when these 30 million donors are searched, there is a donor for only 8 percent of the needs. So 92 percent of the needs worldwide are not met and there is a need for many more donors and that is one of the reasons why we set up a registry, said Professor Dr. Spiroski.

If you are in the register of the Spiroski Scientific Foundation of the World Association of Nut Donors and you appear as a possible donor, the following will happen. When a patient anywhere in the world needs a stem cell transplant, the Spiroski Foundation will search the donor registers. If you are a compatible donor you will be contacted. Your doctor will take a blood sample for further testing to ensure donor compatibility. After the complete examination, the donation will take place in a specialized hospital. For 90 percent of the population, donation is through the collection of stem cells through peripheral blood where the cells are collected from the bloodstream. In this procedure, injections stimulate the body to produce stem cells that migrate from the bone marrow into the bloodstream. Then, with a special machine, the stem cells are collected and if they are in sufficient numbers, they are given to the patient who needs them.

About 10 percent of people donate through a bone marrow, from the pelvis, in a short procedure.

Stem cells are then given to a patient whose immune system has been prepared for the intervention. These donated stem cells are used to start their immune system and start recovery and get a second chance at life.

On the World Marrow Donor Day, the Spiroski Foundation expressed its gratitude to all unrelated marrow donors, all family marrow donors and all umbilical cord blood donors from around the world. These are the three methods that help patients with blood malignancies.