The Mid North Coast Indian Association and the Hastings Macleay Malayalee Association, in association with the Rotary Club of Port Macquarie, will stage the bone marrow registration drive on Sunday, January 26, which marks Australia Day and Indian Republic Day.

Cheek swabs will be taken for tissue typing to recruit potential donors to the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry.

Dr Roshan Abraham said testing would lead to HLA (human leukocyte antigen) typing of potential donors and enable finding a donor match for someone who has blood cancer or another disorder desperately in need of a blood stem cell transplant.

If your tissue type matches with someone in need, you either donate blood stem cells or bone marrow.

The donations are blood stem cell donations in 90 per cent of cases, which is just like giving blood but performed as an outpatient procedure in major city hospitals.

Bone marrow transplants are only done for child recipients or if stem cells are not adequately obtained.

The bone marrow registration drive runs from 9am to 1pm on Sunday, January 26 at Rotary Lodge in the grounds of Port Macquarie Base Hospital.

Only people aged between 18 and 45 can register to be a donor.

"Someone in Australia is diagnosed with blood cancer every 40 minutes," Dr Abraham said.

"The more people there are on the register, the better the chances of finding a match for these patients.

"There is a need for increased awareness about bone marrow/stem cell transplants and the best way to do it is to join the Australian Bone Marrow Registry and tell everyone you know about it."

Visit strengthtogive.org.au to find out more information.

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