Donor ‘didn’t think twice’
“I DIDN’T think twice.” So said Uğur Biren after becoming the TRNC’s latest bone marrow donor, giving the gift of life to an unnamed male cancer patient in urgent need of a transplant.
Mr Biren, 36, underwent the four-hour procedure to extract bone marrow cells at the South’s Nicosia General Hospital last Thursday with his wife, Feriha, at his side to lend support.
Afterwards the Lefkoşa father of one said he had volunteered to donate immediately after hearing that he was a match for the patient. He assured would-be donors that the operation was “nothing to be scared of”, and expressed the wish that all cancer patients could be helped to regain their health quickly.
Mr Biren is among some 42,000 blood donors registered with the Kemal Saraçoğlu Foundation for Children with Leukaemia and the Fight Against Cancer — becoming the 55th to donate bone marrow — and was also in the database of the South’s Karaiskakio Foundation since first giving blood in 2003.
Saraçoğlu foundation coordinator Övgü İnce said: “Those who volunteer to become hope for someone to start their life for a second time are people to be taken as an example.
“The [Birens] were very sensitive towards the issue and were supportive of our work, for which we were grateful. We hope more people will come forward to become a donor, as we need more to be able to help more.”
Anyone who has already given blood for the foundation need not do so again to be on the donor register. Others who wish to be listed may visit the foundation headquarters in Lefkoşa’s Atatürk Square or go to Girne’s Tunççevik Hospital and Talat Medical Laboratory, or the medical centres found in Gazimağusa and İskele. For more information call (0392) 227 0616/17.