Former player of Canadian national men's basketball team, Will Njoku was present in a registration event for potential stem cell donors at the Nova Scotia Community College waterfront campus in Dartmouth on Thursday. He was creating awareness for stem cell donation with OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network.

Stem cell transplants are very useful in treating cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, sickle-cell disease etc. There are approximately 330,000 people, who are registered as potential stem donors and out of them less than one percent are black donors and 75% are white and remaining are ethnically diverse.

"Members of the black community do not realize that their support is needed", said Hailu Mulatu, coordinator for OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network during a registration event at the Nova Scotia Community College Waterfront Campus Thursday.

Bother of Njoku also died of sickle-cell disease at the age of 19. And now his 41 year old sister is suffering from the same condition. Now, Njoku is looking for a stem cell donor that could be a match for her sister.

The best match of stem cell for patients is mostly found in their ethnic group. Moreover, the younger stem cell from male donors is highly effective for patients, according to the OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network.