The initiative was launched five years ago at General Secondary School Complex No. 1 in Jelenia Góra, and for the past three years it has encompassed all upper-secondary schools in our city.
Dorota Kloza, a physical education teacher at ZSO No. 1, together with family doctor Małgorzata Rybińska, bone marrow donor Paulina Bratkowska and the DKMS Foundation, have for several years been working to change young people’s awareness of bone marrow donation. Lectures held as part of the School Donor Day provide young people with essential information about the facts, procedures and limitations involved in registering potential bone marrow donors.
In Poland, the subject of stem cell donation remains relatively little known, which is why the Jelenia Góra initiative is primarily intended to provide knowledge and raise young people’s awareness of the need to expand the pool of potential bone marrow donors.
Thanks to this initiative, several hundred students had the opportunity not only to obtain essential information, but also to register in the potential stem cell donor database. During its three years of activity, more than 300 students from Jelenia Góra’s upper-secondary schools registered in the database, two of whom gave their genetic twins the greatest gift possible—life.
UM Jelenia Góra/ii