Jewish engineer named ‘Donor Champion’ by blood cancer charity for awareness work

A Jewish engineer from north London has been honoured by a national blood cancer charity for his work raising awareness of the need for more stem cell donors.

David Gould, who works at Transport for London, was named Donor Champion of the Year by Anthony Nolan Trust after sharing both his stem cells and his story with his employer, who shared it with staff.

The charity said this week that Gould’s actions “inspired countless people to consider becoming stem cell donors,” after he recognised the need for increased sign-up among young men and ethnic minorities.

Gould joined the national register several years ago, during his first few weeks at university when a friend was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, and got an urgent call in April of this year from the charity, telling him he was a match.

“When you sign up you don’t think anything of it and when you receive a call you think it’s someone’s family, how could you possibly say no. I did what I thought was always the obvious or right thing to do. To receive recognition for it is amazing and lovely but very unnecessary.”

He added: “It’s a very simple procedure. Just lie still and let the machine do the work. It really is amazing how science allows you to do something so small and simple that makes such a massive impact on someone’s life.”