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A stem cell donor is urging people to sign-up after registration numbers drop by more than 50 per cent from this time last year.

Lockdown was the last thing on Sam Schmidts mind when he got the call to say that they had found a match and he was going to be the donor.

He had been expecting that call since his registration last year.

While most of us would have had second thoughts about going through with the process in the middle of a pandemic, the brave 24-year-old took the risk.

Sam Schmidt at the London clinic where he underwent the procedure (DKMS)

Accompanied by his parents, Sam went to the London Clinic this week to undergo the live-saving procedure to donate his stem cells to an anonymous patient with blood cancer.

You could be someones only hope. That really hit home for me especially when I got the call.

"I thought that Im definitely going to do this now because If I dont, Im essentially sentencing someone to a far less chance of survival. If you are someones match then thats an actual individual relying on you.

He registered with the charity DKMS - known as We Delete Blood Cancer - after meeting Peter McCleave, a 42-year-old father of two who was diagnosed with the condition shortly after running an Ironman Triathlon.

Hes one of those people that you meet and youre like, how on earth is someone as fit and healthy has him got blood cancer?

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You could be someones only hope: A stem cell donor campaigning to beat blood cancer - Evening Standard