The whole event began with a plea from the firefighters to spread the word on FBMI to help twenty-one-year-old David, whose life was recently turned upside down. That's because he was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia, a rare marrow-based disease. David urgently needed a bone marrow transplant.
On the basis of David's story, our students came up with the idea of recruiting for the bone marrow registry directly at the faculties. So they contacted the Recruiting Heroes organisation, which cooperates with the Czech National Marrow Donor Registry.
"I am proud of the FBMI students who quickly responded to the call, addressed their colleagues at the 3rd Faculty of Medicine and the firefighters, and showed that they are not indifferent to human life, they are real heroes," said FBMI Dean Prof. Rosina.
"I fully support this generous activity of the students of both faculties and firefighters. As a physician, I am well aware of the need for donated bone marrow for patients with blood diseases. Unfortunately, I learned the severity of these diseases during my studies at high school many years ago when my 19-year-old friend Martin died of the same disease as David now has. At that time, unfortunately, bone marrow transplantation was not yet available," said Prof. Petr Widimský, Dean of the 3rd Faculty of Medicine of Charles University.
"Firefighters have helped others coded into their DNA. They are ready to give their own lives to save people's lives. When our colleagues from the Karlovy Vary Region called us to ‘Become a hero’, it was a clear choice for us to join the Czech National Marrow Donor Registry and help David. I thank all my colleagues in the Corps for giving hope, not only to David, with their registry," said the Director General of the Fire Brigade of the Czech Republic, Maj. Gen. Vladimír Vlček.