This is reported by the Eindhovens Dagblad. Thijs Slegers (46) does not have long to live due to a rejection disease and decided to use his story to recruit as many stem cell and blood donors as possible.
Stem cell and blood donors
And this has resulted in an unprecedented number of new donor registrations. At Matchis, the Netherlands Center for Stem Cell Donors, 7,000 new stem cell donors have now been registered, who may be able to save a life with an intervention.
In close cooperation with Philips and PSV, Slegers also recruited almost 3,000 new blood donors for the Sanquin blood bank.
Millions projects
Normally, it can cost the centers millions to set up huge campaigns that bring in these numbers of new donors. The number of new registrations is therefore a huge boost.
Yesterday, during an ESPN broadcast, the fate of Slegers, who fought with his wife and two children to get better after being diagnosed with leukemia, was extensively discussed.
That seemed to work last year after a stem cell transplant, but recently he was told that he has been treated and that he will eventually die from the consequences of the rejection disease, the newspaper writes.