World Marrow Donor Day (WMDD) is celebrated globally on the third Saturday of September. A unique day to thank all donors, who have signed up to donate marrow or blood stem cells for patients in need of a transplant. WMDD also gives the opportunity to patients to explain the impact of blood stem cell transplantation on their lives.
World Marrow Donor Day was celebrated for the third time in 2017 on 16th of September. The website, media materials and celebrations followed the same theme as the year before; ‘thank you donor’. The global celebrations took place on all continents, in over 40 countries. More than 350 events were organised by over 65 organisations. During this third edition we saw a growing interest of the general public, sharing our and their own stories on social media.
This report is a brief compilation of the impact of WMDD 2017
Events
The global celebrations took place on all continents, in over 40 countries. More than 350 events were organised by over 65 organisations.
General public
Engagement of the general public is rising. There were significant more people involved in WMDD 2017 than the 2 years before. A good example is that 1.2K people used our WMDD picture frame on Facebook to raise awareness for marrow transplantation.
Of all the patient donor stories and posts we shared on WMDD, the story of Christopher had the most impact, 15K reach on Facebook alone! Christopher is doing well and his mother would like to thank everyone for the support on WMDD when he received his transplant.
Highlights
In New York, Rio de Janeiro, Prague and Montreal famous landmarks and buildings were lit up in honour of WMDD. Thank you Redome, Gift of Life, Hema Quebec and Stem Cell Registry Prague for these highlights!
Newsletters
WMDD 2017 after movie
Patient donor stories
On WMDD 2017 we shared 4 donor patient stories throughout the day to highlight the theme 'thank you donor'. Together these stories have been viewed over 3000 times.
Shabas and Manasvi (India)
Samuel (Brazil) and James (USA) + Maria and José (Brazil)
Jakub and Nikola (Czech Republic)
Ingo (Germany) and Elizabeth and Kathryn (USA)
