As Dorota Wojtyniak, deputy head of ZSOiZ in Bolesławiec, said during the ceremony opening this year’s Szpikolada, the school hopes that Szpikolada “will play, just like Owsiak’s campaign, until the end of the world and one day longer.”

View photo: 7th edition of Szpikolada at Zespół Szkół Ogólnokształcących i Zawodowych im. mjra Henryka Sucharskiego in Bolesławiec View photo: 7th edition of Szpikolada at Zespół Szkół Ogólnokształcących i Zawodowych im. mjra Henryka Sucharskiego in Bolesławiec View photo: 7th edition of Szpikolada at Zespół Szkół Ogólnokształcących i Zawodowych im. mjra Henryka Sucharskiego in Bolesławiec

Let us remind you. Szpikolada is an original recurring initiative of the community of Zespół Szkół Ogólnokształcących i Zawodowych im. mjra Henryka Sucharskiego in Bolesławiec, organized as a charitable and educational project. It is carried out by a group of teachers and students in cooperation with foundations involved in recruiting stem-cell and bone-marrow donors.

During Szpikolada, potential bone-marrow donors are registered, a blood-donation campaign is held, meetings and presentations devoted to transplantation are organized, and accompanying events take place.

This year’s edition of the campaign will take place on April 20–21. The event program is provided below:

  • Friday, April 20
    • 10:00 – official opening of Szpikolada, ZSOiZ sports hall
    • 11:00–14:00 – registration of potential bone-marrow donors, ZSOiZ sports hall
    • 15:00–19:00 – registration of potential bone-marrow donors, City Center gallery
    • café
  • Saturday, April 21
    • 5th Run for Marrow
      9:00–10:30 – registration, athletics Orlik next to ZSOiZ
      11:00 – start, athletics Orlik next to ZSOiZ
    • 10:00–14:00 – registration of potential bone-marrow donors, ZSOiZ sports hall
    • 10:00–16:00 – registration of potential bone-marrow donors, City Center gallery
    • 12:30 – basketball tournament, ZSOiZ sports hall
    • café.

Below are photos from last year’s edition of the campaign:

View photo: Szpikolada 2017 View photo: Szpikolada 2017 View photo: Szpikolada 2017

A bone-marrow donor may be a person who is:

  • between 18 and 50 years old
  • responsible and aware that they may be asked to donate marrow even several decades after registration
  • healthy, has not had cancer, hematological or immune diseases, and is not a carrier of HIV, HBS or HCV viruses (hepatitis B and C)
  • meeting requirements similar to those for blood donors.

During registration, you must have an identity document containing your PESEL number with you.

The following permanently disqualify a person from donating marrow:

  • HIV infection (or belonging to a group at increased risk of infection with this virus)
  • presence of the HBs antigen, anti-HCV antibodies with the presence of HCV RNA (the presence of anti-HBc antibodies and a past type A virus infection are acceptable)
  • active tuberculosis within the past 5 years
  • diabetes, if it requires antidiabetic medication
  • active asthma requiring medication (if the candidate has not had an asthma attack in the past 5 years and does not take medication, they may qualify).

In Poland, someone is diagnosed every hour with a blood cancer, that is, leukemia. For many patients, a transplant from an unrelated donor is their only chance of survival. You, too, can save someone’s life by registering as a potential bone-marrow donor. It takes only a moment and involves a preliminary medical interview, completing a form with personal details, and taking a swab from the inside of the cheek or 4 ml of blood.

Zbigniew Herbut from the Polish Red Cross on a myth surrounding bone-marrow transplantation: