Each year, thousands of patients with serious blood disease await a bone marrow transplant. Despite 400,000 donors registered in France, genetic compatibility remains a vital challenge. A new campaign calls for expanding and diversifying the register of volunteers.
Genetic compatibility: a vital issue for patients
Finding a compatible donor is not automatic, even within the same family. In three out of four cases, doctors must look for a graft outside the family circle. The reason is simple: each individual has a unique genetic signature, determined by his human leukocyte antigens (HLA).
Today, only 10 % of patients grafted in France receive their graft from a donor registered in the national register. In the majority of cases, medical teams must therefore turn to foreign registers. Hence the importance of rejuvenating and diversifying the French base in order to offer an additional chance to each patient.
A register of donors to be constantly renewing
The national register is never frozen. Each year, around 7,000 people are withdrawn for reasons of age, health or death. To compensate, the biomedicine agency insists on three particularly sought -after profiles:
- Young people, whose hematopoietic stem cells promote faster grafting;
- Men, whose grafts are better tolerated immunely;
- People from diversity, to reflect the genetic variety of pending patients.
In 2024, 15,717 new volunteers registered, including 40 % men. During the first half of 2025, 12,849 additional people joined the register. In total, 403,034 donors were registered in France on June 30, 2025. Despite this progress, the needs remain immense.
A new campaign to recruit “Watchers of Life”
On the occasion of World Bone Moelle Day, on September 20, 2025, the Biomedicine Agency launched a new campaign called “Watchers of life”. Its objective: to encourage new volunteers to join the register and recall that each registration can represent the only chance of healing for a patient, in France or elsewhere. A media campaign in mainland France “Someone is waiting for you to be saved” on Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube. A video testimony of a donor will also be broadcast on Tiktok
Because for nine in ten French patients, the hope of a transplant is based on a foreign donor. The donation of bone marrow is based on a single international solidarity: 73 interconnected registers bring together 43 million volunteers ready to give for any patient, all over the world.
Understand everything about the donation of bone marrow
- The bone marrow makes our blood cells: red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.
- Donation is sometimes the only chance of healing for patients with leukemia or sickle cell anemia.
- In 80 % of cases, it is a blood sample of 3 to 4 hours, comparable to a gift of platelets.
- The conditions: being between 18 and 35 years old, be in good health, and register via the site www.dondemoelleosuser.fr.