«Am I your type?» is the slogan of a campaign launched by Blood Donation Switzerland, which aims to increase the number of people registered in Switzerland as blood stem cell donors from 42,000 to 70,000.
Every year in Switzerland around 1,000 children and adults are diagnosed with leukaemia and defects of the immune and metabolic systems. In many cases, these life-threatening diseases can be treated with transplantation of blood stem cells, which are responsible for the formation of blood cells.
But as the organisation points out, because there are billions of combinations of tissue characteristics, possible finding a matching donor for a sick patient «is like finding a needle in a haystack».
Through the new campaign, Blood Donation Switzerland hopes to increase public awareness of donating. The campaign features seven Swiss celebrities, including ex-Mister Switzerland Renzo Blumenthal and race car driver Christina Surer.
Progress has already been made in recent years, with the number of registered blood stem cell donors doubling since 2007.
Unlike organ donation, which in many cases can only be done after death, stem cell donation is possible for living donors.
There are centres for blood stem cell donation in Zurich, Geneva and Basel. It generally takes between three and six hours to donate stem cells, and a hospital stay is usually not required for the donor.