YOUNG Asian people have been urged to become bone marrow donors.

Kali Mountford made the plea to hundreds of people at Fartown Sikh Temple.

The Colne Valley MP is backing the campaign begun by Examiner reporter Adrian Sudbury to get more young people to register as bone marrow donors.

Adrian died in August, aged just 27, after a two-year battle with leukaemia.

A young Asian woman, Selina Ramanah, of Almondbury, died from acute myeloid leukaemia, aged just 22, on February 10, 2006.

She had been waiting for a bone marrow transplant.

Her family had made public appeals for people to register as donors with the Anthony Nolan Trust, the charity which keeps one of the UK’s two bone marrow donor registers.

They even held clinics in Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Preston and Wakefield where people could sign up to the register.

Sadly for Selina, a match could not be found in time to save her life.

Her family was one of the first to sign up to become marrow donors in the Sign Up For Sudders campaign to get people nationwide to put themselves forward as possible donors.

Selina’s mum Shantah said: “Selina was so young to be losing her life and knowing someone could have helped her, but we just couldn’t find them is very hard.”

Like most people, the Ramanah family knew little about leukaemia, bone marrow or blood donation before Selina became ill.

Selina’s sister, Devina, said: “People need to know how easy signing up is and what’s involved.”

The search for a suitable donor was made even harder because the family originate from Mauritius.

It is more difficult to find donor matches for patients who belong to ethnic minority groups.

There is a shortage of donors from these groups and also a shortage of young male donors.

Ms Mountford was speaking at a celebration of the 300th anniversary of Sikhism’s holy scriptures.

She said: “Today we should look back on 300 years, but we should also look forward to the next 300 years. The Sikh community has an excellent reputation for supporting charity and today is the right day to ask you to once more support a charity – but not necessarily just with your money.

“I recently attended the memorial service for Adrian Sudbury. It was one of his aims to get more people on the bone marrow register so that lives could be saved.

“I want to see more people on the bone marrow register from the Asian communities as there are fewer people on the register than should be.

“There are people all over the world waiting for a matching donor and the more people there are on the register the better the chance of saving someone’s life.”

Adrian spent the last weeks of his life fighting to raise awareness about the need for donors – and pushed the Government to ensure 17 and 18-year-olds are educated as standard about bone marrow, blood and organ donation.

For more information about the Trust or becoming a donor, ring 0207 2841234 or visit www.anthonynolan.org.uk