Brose contributes to search for stem cell donor for Emil and Luise

Brose’s Executive Vice-President Kurt Sauernheimer presented more then 9,000 euros, the proceeds from fundraising at this year’s Brose Open, to the team leader for the Tübingen campaign region of DKMS Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderda­tei gGmbh, Allessandro Hämmerle, in Coburg.

The aim of Brose’s donation is to help find a further 180 potential stem cell donors for Emil and Luise Rottmann, a brother and sister from Erlangen who suffer from Fanconi Anemia and urgently require stem cell transplantation to save their lives.

Brose’s Executive Vice-President comments: “The two children’s story moved us deeply and so we were eager to help. Our greatest wish would be for suitable bone marrow donors to be found at last.”

Tanja Sahler, co-founder of the private initiative “COURAGE for Luise and Emil”, explains that someone in Germany develops leukemia every 45 minutes. In addition, it was incredibly difficult to find a suitable stem cell donor because of the very low likelihood of the tissue type of two people matching.

The only chance of curing sufferers was therefore to typify as large a number of potential stem cell donors as possible. In this, 5 milliliters of blood are taken to determine the genetic tissue type. That means anyone who has his or her tissue typified by having a few drops of blood taken from them is a potential lifesaver and also helps expand the donor file.

Allessandro Hämmerle from the DKMS expresses disappointment that every one-in-five person who suffers from leukemia has to wait in vain for a stem cell donor, despite the fact that more than 1.7 million donors are now registered in the DKMS file: “That means any financial aid that enables us to typify and identify further stem cell donors is all the more welcome.” Hämmerle adds that since being founded in 1991, the DKMS has been able to give around 14,470 patients in Germany and abroad a new chance of life by finding a suitable donor. For more information on the DKMS, visit www.dkms.de.