As I was doing my shopping this past Sunday, I met a group of children who were evidently canvassing for something outside one of the shops. All were wearing t-shirts with Ezer Mizion's latest slogan on it. 'PayYourDue' read the bold lettering, accompanied by the tragically familiar picture of a child obviously affected with a terrible illness. The eager children - all Year 6 pupils of Broughton Jewish Primary School, Manchester - were enthusiastically handing out Ezer Mizion cards and reply envelopes to as many passers-by as they could.

As always, it was so touching to see children giving of their free time to help other less fortunate children and when three lovely girls approached me to give me a card, I took the chance to ask them a bit about this. The drive was a community-based project arranged by one of the local parents, in which children of the school were asked to volunteer half an hour on Sunday to help.

Approximately a dozen children volunteered and were given permission to leave school a few minutes early. Wearing the t-shirts provided by the organisation the children first waited outside their school to approach the parents collecting their children, and then, chaperoned by one of the parents, set off to walk down to the local shops where they handed out as many cards as they could. As the sweet girls said to me, "You can donate money or blood - there's an envelope here to send it in!"

Ezer Mizion needs no introduction; unfortunately the organisation is in demand far more than the organisers would have wished, but to those people who are struggling with serious illnesses, it is literally a lifesaver. By creating a bone marrow registry specifically from Jewish people, they are in a position to help ill people who require a transplant, as a match is most likely to be found in their own ethnic group. As the largest Jewish Bone Marrow Registry in the world, and the fourth largest registry amongst the general populace, Ezer Mizion has almost 440,000 potential stem cell donors in its registry. Their hope is, with G-d's help, to have enough stem cell donors so that whenever there is a need for a transplant, the donors will be there, waiting for the patient. In March alone, 9 transplants were successfully completed through Ezer Mizion.

The Broughton Jewish children were just one part of an enormous outpouring of support from the community. Around 500 people turned out on Sunday to have a blood test and be registered on the donor Registry, in a widely publicised drive to find a match for a local woman who is waiting for a bone marrow transplant. A donor drive was held in Israel at the same time, and participants at the Manchester drive were asked to donate £25 to cover the cost of a blood test over there. Double the Chance - Double the Mitzvah was the idea.

The PayYourDue drive was launched in Glasgow in February, hit Manchester this month, and is on its way to London very soon. From there the organisers plan to spread the campaign through the rest of the Jewish world. The campaign has the backing of many prominent Rabbonim, with Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks quoted on the leaflets as saying, "Supporting this project gives you an opportunity to be part of a great and possibly life-saving mitzvah - Pikuach Nefesh. I urge everyone to respond to this emergency appeal."

For more information please contact Ezer Mizion UK on 0800 804 8884 or www.payyourdue.com.

Reprinted with permission from The Jewish Tribune