Max Kretzmer, Chairman of The High St Auction Co and leukaemia survivor comments, “As a world class auction company we firmly believe that it is our duty and privilege to be in a position to give back to those in need. We have worked with The Sunflower Fund over the past year with fundraising auctions and our lead auctioneer, Joff Van Reenen has successfully raised substantial sums of money for the organisation.”

“However, it was only when we explored ways in which we could assist the organisation further that we saw a real requirement for education regarding not only leukaemia but what the true needs are that the organisation has in terms of creating awareness and education around this disease. It is a fact that every year thousands of South Africans are diagnosed with leukaemia and other life threatening blood disorders.  The only way to assist these people in their recovery is to find viable bone marrow donors and through our extensive network, The High St Auction Co is going to reach out to this network and help with the education process.”

Lauren Corlett,  Gauteng fundraising coordinator for the organisation comments, “Actual rands and cents in our bank account is vital to allow us to do the great work that we do, but the reality is that without donors we cant complete this work. For a leukaemia sufferer often the only chance of survival is a life saving bone marrow stem cell transplant. The Sunflower Fund requires a viable source of well informed potential bone marrow stem cell donors who are ethnically diverse, in an effort to save the lives of those needing a transplant. The chances of finding a match within your ethnic group are 1:100 000.  This means in South Africa, we need to recruit 100 000 of each of the four prominent ethnic groups i.e black, coloured, Indian and white just to find one suitable donor.”

Corlett continues, “You can make the difference by joining the Registry! The registry is currently sitting at 64 500 donors and is not fully representative of the South African population.   It only takes two test tubes of blood to become a donor but R1000 to tissue type that sample at the required level. The Sunflower Fund raises the funds to pay these test costs on behalf of the potential donor.”

The Sunflower Fund is the only organisation in South Africa that educates and recruits healthy, committed and caring donors and pays for the tissue typing of these donors.

Kretzmer concludes, “In addition to assisting The Sunflower Fund with the education drive The High St Auction Co will assist the financial needs of the organisation by donating a percentage of profits from each of its monthly property auctions.. In this way we are reaching out to our diverse base of buyers, sellers and business partners to get them actively involved in the fundraising process.”

For more information on The Sunflower Fund and how you can become a donor, please call Lauren Corlett on (011) 783-4568 or email on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Toll Free on 0800 12 10 82. www.sunflowerfund.org.za.

The Sunflower Fund will also be in attendance at the next High St Auction Co event to be held on 1 September 2011 at Summer Place in Hyde Park at 12h00.