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This year's 6th DDO takes place on the occasion of World Bone Marrow Donor Day on September 19 at Malostranské náměstí in Prague.

About 80 to 100 children a year suffer from leukemia in the Czech Republic. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (bone marrow) is the only way for some of them to defeat it. Together with the cured children and their families, we can symbolically thank all the bone marrow donors at the Children's Oncology Day, which takes place on September 19, 2020 from 13:00 pm to 18:00 pm on Malostranské náměstí in Prague. There will also be tents at the Czech National Registry of Marrow Donors and the Czech Register of Hematopoietic Cell Donors from IKEM in Prague, where those interested will be able to find out about donations or register in the register. Under favorable epidemiological conditions, participants in cooperation with the Czech National Marrow Donor Registry will have the opportunity to undergo a simple saliva smear, from which it is possible to identify genetic traits, according to which, if necessary, a match is sought between the patient and the donor. There are almost 38 million people in donor registries worldwide, but every fourth to fifth patient, including children, does not find a suitable donor in time or at all. The sixth year of the Children's Oncology Day is held under the auspices of the Mayor of the Capital City of Prague, MUDr. Zdeněk Hřib and the mayor of the City District of Prague 1 Ing. Petra Hejmy.

Every year of Children's Oncology Day has its own theme, this year is bone marrow donation. "This is one of the main reasons why Children's Oncology Day is held untraditionally in September, specifically on September 19, when the whole world celebrates Bone Marrow Donor Day," stated by MUDr. Lucie Hrdličková, doctor of the Department of Hematology and Pediatric Oncology, Motol University Hospital in Prague and initiator of the Children's Oncology Day awareness event, and continued: "We want to support the efforts of both Czech registries of hematopoietic stem cell donors to acquire new donors and show the public how children who can live thanks to transplantation live and look. On Children's Oncology Day, they will laugh and play just like those who, fortunately, never needed another person's bone marrow. If they are for a long time after treatment and have hair, you will not even know others from healthy children. " And that is why it is a distinctive subtitle of this year's Children's Oncology Day "A day full of fun for all children."

A colorful afternoon full of games for children, information for adults and entertainment for everyone awaits the participants. While thirteen various non-profit organizations from all over the Czech Republic will take care of games and information about the possibilities of supporting children with cancer and their families, doctors, heads of both Czech donor registries and pediatric patients with their families will share their experience and education with visitors at 14:00. . Traditionally, you can look forward to the autograph signing of celebrities. Mína Elischerová and representatives of the music groups Mirai and Chai will hand out their signatures from 15 p.m. Everyone will also perform at the concert from 00:16 to 00:18.

"By realizing that I could lose my life as a child, I value everything more today. I contracted lymphoblastic leukemia ten years ago and even then I wanted to be a musical singer. I spent two years in the hospital. I don't remember much about it, maybe just doing nonsense on a bed on wheels and riding a scooter on the ward and my mother ran after me with drips. But my mother says I sang with the hospital, " tells Dominika Mína Elischerová, who will perform at Children's Oncology Day and who today, at the age of 18, promotes herself not only as a dream musical singer, but also as a great influencer.

The organizer of the Children's Oncology Day is HAIMA CZ, association supporting families with children with hematooncological diseases.

Doctors of the Department of Hematology and Pediatric Oncology at the Motol University Hospital in Prague have transplanted more than 1989 pediatric patients since 1 and are still the only institution in the Czech Republic where unrelated bone marrow transplants are performed. "The time for transplantation is when treatment with standard chemotherapy fails or is unable to kill the tumor cells without serious damage to the healthy hematopoiesis and immune system. Unlike adults, however, in pediatrics, transplantation is much more often used in the treatment of acquired and congenital non-cancerous hematopoietic diseases - for example, severe hematopoietic disorders, the immune system or some inherited metabolic disorders. " explains prof. MUDr. Petr Sedláček, CSc., Chief physician Transplant units of the Department of Hematology and Pediatric Oncology, Motol University Hospital in Prague.

As many as 80 percent of bone marrow donors for children come from registries around the world, only a quarter of them come directly from registries in the Czech Republic. "This year we would like to reach the magic number of 100 registered donors. This is about half of our way to fulfilling an age-old dream, namely that most Czech patients find their donor with us and we do not have to look for them abroad. " stated by MUDr. Pavel Jindra, chief physician of the Czech National Marrow Donor Registry and head of the hematology and oncology department at the University Hospital in Pilsen.  

We are looking for suitable donors for pediatric patients from the Motol University Hospital not only in our database, but also in the databases of foreign registries, right from the beginning of the unrelated transplant program. Just to give you an idea, this year we have already arranged 16 transplants for children at the Motol University Hospital and another 41 transplants for Czech and foreign patients. All this even under very complicated conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, says Mgr. Marie Kuříková.

"Last year, 68 cells were imported from abroad, for the most part it was from Germany, " approaches the chief physician of the coordination center of the Czech National Marrow Donor Registry, MUDr. Jana Navrátilová and adds: "Czech cells most often went to help patients in Germany, the USA and Great Britain, and then traveled the most to Australia."