BERMUDA residents have "a rare opportunity to become a hero" by coming forward to try and help to save the life of Bermuda leukaemia sufferer Diana Dismont, according to US physician Dr. Robert Soiffer.

Ms Dismont's best chance of a cure is a bone marrow or blood stem cell transplant, but before that can happen, doctors need to find a suitable donor.

Volunteers are asked to turn up at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital on Friday or Saturday of next week to take a blood test.

Dr. Soiffer, clinical director of the Dana-Farber Centre of Hematologic Oncology and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard University, said yesterday: "Very rarely do we as individuals have an opportunity to be heroes in our daily lives. Very few of us are running into burning buildings to rescue people.

"But this is an opportunity to save somebody's life. And whoever is trying to do that is as significant a hero as anyone."

Members of Ms Dismont's family were tested, but none was a perfect match for the patient. The family has initiated a search of the US National Marrow Donor Programme's (NMDP) Registry of volunteer marrow donors.

KEMH is holding the screening in association with the NMDP at the Dana-Farber Cancer Centre, with funding from The Marrow Foundation.

Potential donors will have the opportunity to help not only Ms Dismont but also anyone else in the world needing a bone marrow donor.

Around 70 percent of people requiring a bone marrow transplant will not find a bone marrow match with a member of their family. They then have to turn to a donor registry in search of a "miracle match".

Dr. Soiffer stressed that being a bone marrow donor did not necessarily mean that bone marrow would be surgically extracted.

"What we usually do is give the donor some injections to mobilise the stem cells, so they come out of the bone marrow and into the blood stream," he said. "Then all we have to do is take some blood."

Leukaemia is a cancer of the blood which produces an over-production of white blood cells.

Volunteers must be eligible blood donors between the ages of 18 and 59, in good general health, free of all chronic diseases, and not excessively overweight.

To join the NMDP Registry, volunteers will sign a consent form agreeing to enrol on behalf of a stranger, and have a small sample of blood drawn for testing. If you have previously enrolled at another drive, you do not need to re-register. Cash donations will also be accepted to offset the $65 per person cost of typing potential donors.

Recruitment drives will take place on Friday, October 1 (12.30 p.m. to 6 p.m.) and Saturday, October 2 (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) in the lobby of KEMH. No appointments are necessary.