47 new chances for life
Kampmann carried out DKMS typing
Lingen (Ems), 28.07.2011 – Kampmann, the Lingen-based climate control specialist, has carried out bone-marrow typing for the Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei (DKMS – German Bone Marrow Donor Register). And significantly increased the number of employees willing to join the battle against leukaemia and become donors.
Sabine Wresch, personal assistant to the board of management at Kampmann, recently became a first-hand witness to how life can be extended. She accompanied her husband to Muenster University Hospital, where his blood stem cells were taken for a young Belgian suffering from severe leukaemia. The Lingen-based company allowed her to take the day off to support her husband.
Easy bone-marrow typing through the HR department
Shortly after, Sabine Wresch joined the register when a bone-marrow typing campaign was launched at Kampmann: "Leukaemia can also affect me or someone I know. But it doesn't really matter whether it's in Lingen or somewhere else in the world: I just want to help where I can", she explains her motivation. The fact that bone-marrow typing can be carried out through employers made it easy for the working mother to join the register.
Management encouraged the project
According to Gideon Krull, who works in Kampmann's HR department, the campaign addressed each and every employee's social responsibility: "In such large companies as Kampmann GmbH, which operates with a workforce of more than 600 employees in Germany, the prospects are good for getting many helpful people to participate in the bone-marrow typing project." A project, which incidentally coincided with an appeal to help a young man with leukaemia, who lives in nearby Bawinkel. With the management's support, he drew attention to the campaign on the company's intranet several times. A spontaneous t-shirt sales campaign for employees initially raised 1,141 Euros, but was further increased to 2,500 Euros with a generous gift from the company's CEO, Hendrik Kampmann.
Making a stand against leukaemia
In conjunction with the DKMS, Gideon Krull then arranged the internal handling of the bone-marrow-typing sets, which was carried out by taking mouth swabs. The non-profit organisation with the world's largest register of donors thanked Kampmann GmbH for its work: "Kampmann has joined the growing numbers of businesses in Germany that are willing to make a stand in the battle against leukaemia."
High number of as yet unknown cases desired
47 employees now have the good feeling that they might be able to save someone with leukaemia. Even though the chances of finding genetic matches are slim, most of the employees hope that one day they will be that match for someone. This initiative has enabled Kampmann GmbH to increase the number of employees with known bone-marrow types to 106 – assuming the wish for more among those not joining this project.
Kampmann GmbH in Lingen is internationally successful with its technically leading heating, cooling and ventilation systems. It employs around 750 people worldwide, including 550 at the Lingen location.
For more information about bone marrow typing, visit www.dkms.de/en.