Blood cancer charity DKMS is urging people from Co. Durham to register as potential blood stem cell donors this month to help save the lives of blood cancer patients.  September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month and DKMS wants to highlight that many blood cancer patients needing a blood stem cell donation for their survival never find a perfectly matching donor. DKMS says that the chances of finding a match could increase if more people registered as potential blood stem cell donors. For many blood cancer patients, a blood stem cell donation is their only chance of survival. Sadly, many patients will not find a matching donor. This isn’t because a match doesn’t exist, it’s simply because there aren’t enough people registered as donors. That is why DKMS works to increase the size and diversity of the blood stem cell registry. If you are registered as a potential blood stem cell donor and match with someone who needs a blood stem cell donation, the two methods through which blood stem cells are collected are either, a donation of peripheral stem cells collected via the blood stream (around 90 per cent of donations are made this way) or a donation of bone marrow collected from the back of the pelvic bone (not the spine). Caroline Portlock, Head of Donor Recruitment at the charity, said: “We are delighted that many people from Durham have already registered to potentially help save a life . Every 20 minutes, someone in the UK is diagnosed with a blood cancer like leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma. Registering as a potential blood stem cell donor only takes a few minutes but it could lead to you giving decades to someone else. It could be one of the most important things you ever do. So I would encourage everyone aged 17 to 55 to take a few minutes during Blood Cancer Awareness Month to register online at our website www.dkms.org. uk and request a cheek swab kit.”