Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) raise awareness of the need for stem cell donations from people aged 16-30 and (b) encourage those people to join the stem cell donor register.

The Department has provided more than £26 million to NHS Blood and Transplant and Anthony Nolan for stem cell donation since 2011. The funding has specific targets about the proportion of young donors, specifically young male donors, due to research identifying that younger donors offer the potential for better patient outcomes and a greater chance of survival. The Anthony Nolan and NHS Stem Cell Registry which was supported by the Department funding has over 1.4 million registered donors. 69% of new donors recruited to the registry in 2017 were under the age of 30.

Raising awareness about the importance of stem cell donation is everyone's business. The government fully supports and recognises the important work charities do to encourage registration and donation for the benefit of patients. I recently met with Team Margot, a charity who are doing excellent work to raise awareness of the need for stem cell donors.