Gemma, who’s been supporting Race Against Blood Cancer for a little over a year took some time out of her busy schedule to be interviewed by Emma Brown, our Social Media manager about how she first came in contact with the charity

“I first became a volunteer for Race Against Blood Cancer in March 2017, after learning that a friend’s son was in need of a blood stem cell transplant. This emotionally touched my heart and I wanted to offer my support in a way that I could try and really make a difference. I held my first donor drive in aid of the Match4Khaleel campaign, which was a huge success. We were able to sign up 57 potential donors to the stem cell register within 2 hours. This inspired me to want to help others who are in a similar position to Khaleel.

In May 2017 a job was advertised for a Community Engagement Officer in the West Midlands and I knew that this was something that I would love to do, so I applied for the position. I was delighted when I was offered the job at Race Against Blood Cancer because this meant that I could put my all into raising awareness of blood cancer and signing people up.

Over the past 10 months myself and my team of volunteers have signed up over 660 potential blood stem cell donors. I would really love for us to reach a target of 1000 by the end of August 2018 and to continue to encourage people from all different ethnic backgrounds to sign up because you never know when it could affect somebody you love.”

Gemma Elsmore – Community Engagement Officer.