IDFNZ Supporting Blood & Bone
Mon Aug. 24th 2026
A combined What’s my type? and swabbing event for potential blood, plasma, and bone marrow donors at the University of Canterbury proved hugely successful.
Christchurch NZBS Donor Relations Coordinator, IDFNZ Board Member and parent of Max, an IDFNZ PID member, Liz Murchison says the turnout at the April 21 event was fantastic.
“The room was bursting at the seams, and we had people travel from as far away as Blenheim, which was pretty special.”
The event’s profile was boosted by the story of local girl Mea Richards, who was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia in 2022 when she was just eight years old.
Mea, who also attended the event with mum, Nicole, requires a bone marrow transplant to give her a shot at a normal life but, four years later, is still waiting for a full match.
“A lot of people I spoke to said they had come because they had read Mea’s story, or because ‘my mum told me to’,” says Liz, whose own son, six-year-old Max, received a bone marrow transplant when he was just five months old following the diagnosis of Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome.
During the three-hour event, 90 people signed up for blood or plasma donations and 107 people joined our New Zealand Bone Marrow Donor Registry (NZBMDR) after being swabbed.
NZBMDR Donor Coordinator Judith Lawrence, who carried out the swabbing on the day, says the ripple effect from the event has continued.
“As well as the 107 people we signed up on the day, we’ve also subsequently despatched more than 80 swab kits to people who requested them,” she says.
But growing the registry is only part of the challenge. Ensuring it is ethnically diverse is also essential, which is why the support of Te Akatoki and the university’s Filipino Society was so important in helping engage students from groups currently underrepresented on global registries.
Unlike blood donation, bone marrow matching relies heavily on inherited genetic markers, which are more likely to align within the same ethnic group.
Many ethnic minority groups face challenges in finding compatible matches. Of the more than 40 million people registered as bone marrow donors worldwide, there are fewer than 10,000 registered donors of Māori or Pacific Island descent.
If you would like to learn more about joining the bone marrow registry or have questions about how to become a blood or plasma donor in Aotearoa, your welcome to reach out to Liz – Elizabeth.murchison@nzblood.co.nz
About New Zealand Bone Marrow Donor Registry
The New Zealand Bone Marrow Donor Registry (NZBMDR) is responsible for searching all registries for unrelated volunteer donors for NZ patients who require a bone marrow transplant and do not have a suitable family donor. NZBMDR is also responsible for recruiting volunteer donors who are willing to donate their bone marrow to a matched patient anywhere in the world.
To join the New Zealand Bone Marrow Donor Registry, you must be aged 18–35, meet blood donor eligibility criteria, and be willing to donate to any patient.
Thank you to IDFNZ member Connie Boston for hosting a Blood donation drive to celebrate Blood Donor Awareness Month. The event was a great success “We had 32 people through the doors, with 25 successful donations, and 15 of those were from first-time donors, which is huge for us. It's the most first-time donors we've ever had in a day.” IDFNZ was proud to support the event with special ‘thank you’ cookies and by sharing information on how plasma donations benefit IDFNZ patient members.
We encourage IDFNZ members and supporters to participate in these quarterly blood donor events. If you are interested in giving blood, or are a patient receiving plasma infusions wanting to meet with and encourage blood donors.
The next Onehunga, Mobile Drive is Tuesday, September 29th, at the He Waka Eke Noa Charitable Trust, The Factory Theatre, 80 Onehunga Mall, Auckland, New Zealand, 1061.
