Become a stem cell donor in the United Kingdom

DKMS UK takes the widest age range in the United Kingdom, 16 to 55, but asks for at least two years at a permanent UK address. [2]

Anthony Nolan takes people aged 16 to 30 who live in the UK, through an online application. [4, 5]

The Welsh Bone Marrow Donor Registry takes UK residents from 16 until their 31st birthday, or until their 46th birthday for people of Black, Asian, mixed heritage or minority ethnic background. [7, 8]

The NHS Stem Cell Donor Registry signs up only people who already give blood in England, aged 17 to 40, with an extra blood sample taken during a donation. [6]

Scotland’s blood service, SNBTS, sends people who want to join a stem cell register to Anthony Nolan, from 16 to 30, or to DKMS, from 17 to 55, its May 2024 leaflet says. On Oct 18, 2026, the website of Northern Ireland’s blood service had nothing on joining a stem cell register. [24, 25]

Four UK registries sign up donors, and joining one of them is enough. [6]

Anthony Nolan says young men are far more likely to be chosen to donate and give more than half of all donations from its register, though they make up only a small part of it. [4, 15]

Anthony Nolan says Shirley Nolan founded its register in 1974 for her son Anthony, who needed a bone marrow transplant, that it was the first of its kind in the world, and that it passed 900,000 people in 2023. [14]

Anthony Nolan says Daniel De-Gale became the first Black person in the UK to receive a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor, in 1999, after three years of campaigning; ACLT says the donor, from Detroit, Michigan, had joined the US register. [16, 17]