Former Homeland Star David Harewood Has Written An Online Article Urging Black U.k. Residents To Sign Up To The Stem Cell Donor Register.

The actor has teamed up with stem cell charity Anthony Nolan and the African-Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT) to launch an appeal encouraging young, black Brits to donate bone marrow so leukaemia sufferers in ethnic minorities have a better chance of receiving pioneering stem cell treatment.

Harewood has written an online article for Independent.co.uk in which he details the stem cell donation process for the African-Caribbean community, and encourages them to take part.

He writes, "The black population is badly underrepresented on the bone marrow register compiled by the blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan. In fact, there are 30 times more white people than African-Caribbean people willing to donate their stem cells in this country.

"The result of this? If you're black and have leukaemia then you have less than a 20 per cent chance of finding the best possible match when your last hope of survival is a lifesaving transplant from a stranger. We are literally dying, not because a matching donor isn't out there somewhere - but because that person never joined the register.

"This isn't right, and it urgently needs to change. It's horrible to think that if my daughters needed a transplant they would be at a disadvantage because there aren't enough black and mixed race donors on the register."

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David Harewood Launches Appeal For Black Stem Cell Donors