Strathclyde Fire & Rescue has entered into a unique life-saving partnership with the leukaemia charity, the Anthony Nolan Trust.

The trust runs the UK's most successful bone marrow donor's register, but urgently needs more donors to sign up. Through the partnership, clinics to find donors will be held in community fire stations across Strathclyde, with the first clinic being held at Clydebank on 8 August.

The idea for the partnership came from Area Commander Ally Boyle who was diagnosed last year with a bone marrow disorder. Ally, in charge of our East & West Dunbartonshire area, was only 36 at the time and his wife Maxine, a Strathclyde firefighter with Cowcaddens Blue Watch, had recently given birth to daughter Jessica.

Ally said: "When I first discovered I had myelodysplasia I immediately wanted to learn more about the disease. This brought me in touch with the Anthony Nolan Trust, and the more I learned the more I wanted to help the charity.

"I'm lucky in that the disease hasn't developed as quickly as was first anticipated and I don't need a transplant yet, but there are thousands of people who urgently need a donor."

It struck Ally that as Strathclyde Fire & Rescue and the Anthony Nolan Trust were both in the business of saving lives, why shouldn't the two organisations get together to potentially save even more lives?

Every 21 minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with leukaemia or a related illness and for some patients a bone marrow transplant is the only cure. There are currently 400,000 people on the Anthony Nolan register but it is simply not enough and there is also an urgent need for more young male donors and people from ethnic backgrounds to join the bone marrow register.

Ally managed to persuade Chief Officer Brian Sweeney that a formal partnership with the Trust could boost the number of new donors - from within Strathclyde Fire & Rescue and also from the public at large.

Chief Officer Sweeney said: "Every day hundreds of firefighters leave our community fire stations to attend life-threatening incidents. Thanks to our partnership with the Anthony Nolan Trust, the 'tide' may flow the other way with hundreds of people visiting our fire stations to save lives."

Mr Sweeney signed the partnership agreement with Sally Stevens, the trust's head of donor recruitment. At the ceremony in Headquarters, Mr Sweeney gave special mention to Firefighter Joanne Wilkie of Calton Blue Watch and Group Commander Ally McLean from the Community Safety Directorate who are on the Anthony Nolan register;  Ally presented the trust with a £5,000 cheque from SFR's St Andrew's Night charity ball.

Sally Stevens said: "We are extremely grateful to Strathclyde Fire & Rescue for entering into this partnership - it will help us reach our target group which is young men. We'd like to ask potential donors not to believe the myths about surgical intervention - donors are quickly up and about after the procedure."

* Donors must be aged 18-40 and be of good health. For more information click on http://www.anthonynolan.org.uk/

Ally Boyle with Scottish fundraiser

Lindsey MacCallum

Both pictures by Andy Buchanan