Follow us along our journey as BMDP’s dedicated PR agency in Singapore for 2022 and 2023 and uncover the media strategies behind an effective PR campaign for the brand’s 30th year anniversary.
For patients with leukaemia and other blood-related diseases such as lymphoma, a bone marrow transplant is the preferred method of treatment. However, the process of matching a bone marrow recipient to a bone marrow donor is not as straightforward as matching blood types, as it is based on Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) typing. A close HLA match to a patient is needed for a successful transplant and because it is so unique, a match for a patient might only be found after a period of several months or even years.
To help patients suffering from terminal blood-related diseases, the BMDP, which is Singapore’s only marrow donor registry, was founded in 1993. It was established by Mr and Mrs Gerald Loong, after they lost their young son to leukaemia, BMDP helps to match patients in need of stem cell transplants to suitable donors, providing the service completely free of charge. Their vision is to provide hope for patients with leukaemia and blood-related diseases, achieving this through public education about blood-related diseases, and recruiting as many bone marrow donors as possible.
Through community activation events such as roadshows and corporate outreach and education, BMDP has managed to grow the size of its registry to 118,000 bone marrow donors and has facilitated 1,033 patient transplants, and 437 bone marrow donations, over the past 30 years. The year 2023 also marked a significant milestone for the BMDP as they celebrated their 30th anniversary with 2 milestone events: 30 Years of Saving Lives Together & Match For LIfe 2023
30 Years of Saving Lives Together
On 19th July 2023, BMDP hosted an anniversary dinner to commemorate their 30th anniversary. The event was graced by Desmond Tan, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office and deputy secretary-general of NTUC, who was the guest of honour at the event, which was attended by 300 people.
During the dinner, the BMDP also announced that it will fund the National University of Singapore (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine’s efforts in cellular therapy clinical trials and treatment, to the tune of S$ 3.6 Million.
Match For Life 2023
Over the month of October 2023, the BMDP held their annual flagship event, Match For Life 2023, which comprised a series of community events taking place across heartlands in Singapore. This year’s theme for Match For Life 2023 was “I Can Save Lives”, where the main objective was to actively target and recruit minority donors, who are currently underrepresented in the register. (The percentage of Malay and Indian donors registered with BMDP Singapore is 8% and 9% respectively, which means that the chances of finding a perfect local match for patients from these ethnic groups are much lower than for patients from other ethnic groups).
The main carnival, which was graced by Guest of Honour Mr. Eric Chua, Senior Parliamentary Secretary (SPS), Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), happened on the weekend of 14 to 15 October, at Kampung Admiralty. The weekend carnival, which boasted a turnout of over a 1,000 people, was hugely successful and rallied the community to boost donor sign-up rates and public awareness about the bone marrow donor process.
Saltine Communications is proud to be the PR agency on record for BMDP 2022 and 2023. We’re happy and honoured to be able to celebrate our clients’ achievements alongside them! Drop us a note at hello@saltinecomms.com to find out how we can get your brand onto the media at affordable rates.
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Published by Sally Yeo, Saltine Communications
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