Campaigners trying to save the life of a Belsize Park woman will be holding a donor drive on Saturday.
Lara Casalotti’s family are urging people to come to the O2 Centre, where they will be able to leave a saliva sample and join the Anthony Nolan register.
Lara’s Mum, Supanya, said: “We have had a huge amount of media interest but what we really need now is for people to take that step and come and spit. You can potentially save the life of a complete stranger from across the world.
“The support we have had is great and now we really need all those people to actually sign up to the register.”
The ‘Mixed Photography Project’ who are documenting the campaign, will be at the event exhibiting portrait photographs of all mixed race donors.
The exhibition intends to create a more personal element to the process and emphasise the ‘beauty’ of diversity in healthcare.
The Match4lara campaign was set up after 24-year-old Lara Casalotti was diagnosed with leukaemia. Lara is half Italian and half Chinese-Thai so finding a match is difficult. Currently only 3 per cent of the donor register is made up people of mixed race.
Speaking to the Ham&High last week, Lara’s brother Seb said: “This is part of a much wider issue. We want more diversity and we want to reduce global health inequalities. The donations can be transported so you could be saving someone’s life in an underdeveloped part of the world.”
The donor drive will be on January 23, 2pm-6pm at the O2 Centre on Finchley Road.
For more information, see the event page on facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/1126175820747406/
To sign up to the donor register, visit http://www.anthonynolan.org
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