Gift of Life Marrow Registry celebrated the 12th annual World Marrow Donor Day (WMDD) on September 22. This day of recognition is to thank donors worldwide for volunteering to save lives.
As part of Gift of Life’s celebrations, staff, who thought they were gathering for a group photo, were treated to a surprise flash mob featuring songs of hope, joy and positivity!
World Marrow Donor Day also brings attention to the donation process through the Journey of Hope in the days leading up to September 22, including Apheresis Day, Matching Day, Registry and Registry Staff Day, Cell and Gene Therapies Developers and Cord Blood Banks Day, Health Care Workers Day, Family Caregivers Day, Couriers Day, all culminating in World Marrow Donor Day! Our social media team was busy posting about each topic in turn.
Gift of Life staff celebrated with a sweet treat! Each year, registries around the globe design special cakes to recognize the day and celebrate the lifesaving impact of donors worldwide.
Donors in Gift of Life’s collection center were delighted to learn it was their special day, and shared in the joy, even as they were donating stem cells for their recipients.
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WMDD is always a special day for our staff (left and center), who are dedicated to ensuring that every donor who registers with us is treated with the utmost care, attention, and respect. Our donors save lives, and that's a miracle to every one of us. Thank you, donors!
Campus Ambassadors (right) at colleges and universities across the country ran WMDD recruitment drives, setting up tables where their fellow students could stop and swab their cheeks to join the registry.
The first WMDD was organized in 2015 by the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA), which sets international standards for registry operations and manages the worldwide database of donors. Doctors and transplant centers can search the database in the hope of finding matching donors for their patients. Today, more than 44 million volunteers are active in the worldwide registry database, and millions of lives have been saved through stem cell and marrow transplants.
Please join us for next year’s
World Marrow Donor Day
on September 22, 2027