More than 26,000 bone marrow transplants from nonblood-related donors have been performed over the three decades since the Japan Marrow Donor Program (JMDP) was founded. But Yoshihisa Kodera, head of the organization, says it is important to increase the number of donors from younger generations to make it sustainable.
"Donors are the ultimate volunteers," said Kodera, who serves as a professor emeritus at Aichi Medical University.
JMDP acts as a mediator between bone marrow donors and recipients. A healthy individual will register his or her white blood cell type with the bank and see if it matches a patient suffering from leukemia or another disease that requires a transplant.