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Towards a more inclusive unrelated donor registry

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 57, pages 688–690 (2022)Cite this article

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In Canada, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM) have experienced a long history of barriers with respect to blood donation: through to the present day, these populations have been deferred from donating blood based on their history of sex with men (though recently in 12/2021, Canadian Blood Services recommended to Health Canada to replace such deferrals with a gender-neutral blood donor screening process) [1, 2]. However, since 2009, gbMSM have been eligible to register as potential stem cell donors [3], yet many remain unaware of their eligibility. Targeted recruitment of gbMSM could augment efforts to recruit donors from needed demographic groups (young [4], male [5], ancestrally diverse [6]) and support a more inclusive donor registry. Here, we share results of a pilot campaign to engage gbMSM as potential stem cell donors, spearheaded by the Canadian donor recruitment organization Stem Cell Club (stemcellclub.ca) [7].

Experienced donor recruiters were invited to run stem cell drives [8, 9] at LGBTQ2S+Pride events in Canada. Prior to these drives, recruiters completed a 90-min workshop on blood and stem cell donation for gbMSM in Canada. The workshop coached recruiters to answer common questions about donation policies regarding LGBTQ2S+ peoples, including (1) “What are the policies for blood donation and stem cell donation for gbMSM in our country?”; (2) “I am HIV positive and I am healthy, can I sign up as a stem cell donor?”; and (3) “I am a Trans* or gender non-binary person, how should I fill out the paperwork to register as a donor?”. Recruiters were also taught to share the story of William Ashby-Hall, a gay man who donated stem cells to an unrelated Montreal-based patient, Susan Doherty (https://youtu.be/bAHfhE02AuM) [10]. An online survey was employed to evaluate recruiter learning outcomes. Fourteen donor recruiters completed the training workshop on blood and stem cell donation for gbMSM in Canada, with eight completing the post-workshop survey. Survey participants unanimously agreed or strongly agreed that the workshop improved their knowledge, preparation, and skills to run drives engaging gbMSM as potential donors.

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Fig. 1: Examples of LGBTQ2S+ Pride event attendees engaging the community to register as potential stem cell donors.

References

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Acknowledgements

We thank the members of the LBGTQ2S+ community who partnered with Stem Cell Club to develop and share photographs and videos in support of stem cell donation, as well as the organizers of the Pride festivals for inviting Stem Cell Club to participate and run stem cell drives. Stem Cell Club is supported by grant funding from Canadian Federation of Medical Students, Doctors of BC, and the Canadian Blood Services BloodTechNet Award.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stem Cell Club, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Warren B. Fingrut, Natalie DeGurse, Adriyan Hrycyshyn, Brendon Lam, Kaveh Farrokhi, Rupal Hatkar, Kenneth Williams, Shamini Vijaya Kumar, Sze Wah Samuel Chan, Dylan Coupal, Sylvia Okonofua, Hayley Wroot, Kyla Pires, Sachini Jayasinghe & Terry Stubbs

  2. Department of Medicine, Adult Bone Marrow Transplantation Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    Warren B. Fingrut

  3. Faculty of Medicine, Western University, London, ON, Canada

    Natalie DeGurse & Kaveh Farrokhi

  4. Faculty of Medicine, Queens University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Adriyan Hrycyshyn

  5. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Brendon Lam

  6. Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Rupal Hatkar, Kenneth Williams, Shamini Vijaya Kumar & Sze Wah Samuel Chan

  7. Faculty of Medicine, University of Regina, Regina, SK, Canada

    Dylan Coupal

  8. Faculty of Science, University of Regina, Regina, SK, Canada

    Sylvia Okonofua

  9. Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Hayley Wroot, Kyla Pires & Sachini Jayasinghe

  10. Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Terry Stubbs

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  1. Warren B. Fingrut
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  15. Terry Stubbs
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Contributions

WBF conceived of the pilot campaign, and designed, led, and evaluated the recruiter training. All authors spearheaded stem cell drives at Pride events, recorded data, participated in the interpretation of the results. ND, AH, KP, SJ, TS, RH, and WBF partnered with members of the LGBTQ2S+ community to develop and share photographs and videos online to engage the community as donors. WBF wrote the manuscript, and all authors critically revised the manuscript and approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Warren B. Fingrut.

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Fingrut, W.B., DeGurse, N., Hrycyshyn, A. et al. Towards a more inclusive unrelated donor registry. Bone Marrow Transplant 57, 688–690 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-022-01597-7

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