DKMS Donor Club has arrived

Our donors give up their time and donate their stem cells to give patients all over the world a second chance at life. Discover more through their inspiring stories.

Following wonderful feedback from our donors, we have decided to launch DKMS Donor Club in September 2022. We are creating a community of donors who can continue to help us improve, share their stories, and inspire more people to become blood stem cell donors!

If you’ve donated your stem cells with DKMS and are interested in becoming part of our new Donor Club, look out for an email from us in September with more information on how to join!

In the meantime, find out more if you are keen to have an update on your patient or email followup@dkms.org.uk for advice.

Improving the donor experience

Earlier this year we surveyed some of our donors and invited a selection of them to chat to us about their donating experiences, including:

• how can we improve our processes at DKMS
• how can we encourage more people to sign up to be stem cell donors
• what were their biggest fears regarding donating?

Through the survey responses we received and four focus groups, we discovered some key things we can do to improve the donation experience.

Staying connected

Lots of the donors found their experiences to be life-affirming and wanted to keep in touch with DKMS to register more stem cell donors for us.

The donors were also keen to connect with one another. Many of the donors in the focus groups expressed how great it was to meet others who had done the same as them. Donating your stem cells is quite a unique and sometimes emotional experience; it is lovely to be able to talk about it with others who understand.

We’re committed to keeping donors up to date through emails and building a community of donors to provide encouragement and support to each other.

Saying thank you

It is difficult to thank our donors for what they do, as it can have such a profound impact on the patient and their family. Many donors feel no need for thanks but as an organisation we would like make sure donors know how grateful we are for their donation. We are currently reviewing our post-donation process to see how we can show our appreciation to our amazing 1,782 donors out there as well as making sure they are well cared for after their donation.

Keeping donors well informed

Before they got the call saying that they had matched to a patient in need, some of the donors weren’t completely sure what they had signed up to. This means some choose not to donate.

We are committing to make sure that everyone we sign up is:

• well informed, and
• has a good understanding of the process from start to end.

We will do this by creating videos of:

• past donors talking about their experiences, and
• patients explaining the need for donors.

Getting involved

It was wonderful to hear from our donors that after everything they have already done for us, they are still keen to do more! This includes:

• running donor recruitment drives
• doing fundraising challenges, and
• spreading the word far and wide.

We can’t wait to see the impact they continue to have on the lives of blood cancer and blood disorder patients all over the world.