Anthony Nolan: experiences with recruiting 16‐ and 17‐year olds as blood stem cell donors

Abstract

BackgroundOn 1 October 2012 Anthony Nolan launched a new donor recruitment policy allowing only those aged 16–30 to join the registry.AimsThe anticipated benefits were: (1) Providing more potentially life-saving transplants from younger donors. (2) Gradually lowering the average age of the registry, thereby providing more opportunities for potential donors to come up as a match. (3) Focusing our valuable resources on recruiting those who are most likely to be selected to donate.MethodsTo ensure a smooth changeover from the previous joining policy a programme of work took place to: (1) Prepare all documentation. (2) Revisit our donor recruitment strategy. (3) Develop a plan to communicate the change to staff, the public and key stakeholders. (4) Amend existing and prepare new communications and materials. The change was implemented on 1 October 2012 and launched with a national press release, a donor recruitment event at a post-16 education centre and much activity on social media.ResultsRecruitment events There was concern that the recruitment rate may decrease due to the new joining policy. Though the number of large-scale patient appeals, we have counteracted this by focusing our efforts on younger donors. Recruitment predictions have been surpassed for this period. Online The impact of the publicity surrounding the policy change was reflected immediately in activity on our website, with more than 1,000 people applying to join the registry in the first week. The weekly average previously was around 350. Social Media Social media played a key role in communicating the policy change to our target audiences. Twitter and Facebook were essential in engaging current supporters to back the change in policy and help to promote it to new audiences. On one day of high volume recruitment in January 2013, 57% of people who applied online stated that they heard about the registry through social media.Summary / ConclusionsWe are committed to engaging with younger audiences in order to recruit younger donors and improve the quality of the registry. Already the average age of those joining the registry has reduced to 21 and we know that recruiting younger donors will help us to offer the best chance of life to patients in need of a transplant.