Save a complete stranger\u2019s life?<\/p>\n
Singaporean actor Nick Teo has no qualms doing so \u2013 even enduring injections to donate his stem cells to someone he\u2019s never met.<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old, who is expecting his first child with his wife, Singaporean actress Hong Ling, documented his donation journey in an Instagram video uploaded on Oct 21.<\/p>\n
Teo wrote in the post: \u201cI know there are many rumours about bone marrow donation, including that it affects fertility. And here I am, about to start a family of my own. So I get why people might have concerns. But do not let rumours stop you from finding out the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore website, a haematopoietic stem cell transplant \u2013 previously known as a bone marrow transplant \u2013 is offered as a treatment option for various types of blood disorders.<\/p>\n
The Bone Marrow Donor Programme, which manages Singapore\u2019s only register of volunteer bone marrow donors, was tagged in Teo\u2019s post. Its vision is to provide hope for patients with leukaemia and blood-related diseases, and its goal is to find a donor for every patient.<\/p>\n
In the clip, Teo is seen injecting himself to increase the stem cells in his blood before the donation, with Hong Ling, 32, assisting him with the first injection.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cNot gonna lie, I was quite nervous at first. But after going through the whole process, I realised it was not as scary as I thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even after giving himself a second jab on another day, he still felt \u201cquite okay\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
In his post\u2019s caption, Teo said the actual stem cell donation was similar to a blood donation, taking about six hours of his life \u201cto give someone else a second chance at theirs\u201d.<\/p>\n
Teo also encouraged others to donate stem cells.<\/p>\n
He wrote: \u201cIf you have ever thought about signing up, maybe this is your little nudge. A simple swab could lead to something life-changing. You never know whose life you might save.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the video, he said that after giving himself a few days to recover, he was back doing what he loved. He is shown filming a boxing scene for the recently concluded Mediacorp crime drama In His Hands, alongside local actor Tyler Ten.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged many people assume a donor\u2019s body becomes weaker post-donation, adding: \u201cBut look at me. I am still filming fight scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cTo me, (donating stem cells) was just a small part of my life. But to someone else, it could mean getting a second chance at life. And who knows? Maybe you could be someone\u2019s hope too.\u201d \u2013 The Straits Times\/Asia News Network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save a complete stranger\u2019s life? Singaporean actor Nick Teo has no qualms doing so \u2013 even enduring injections…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134,6675],"class_list":["post-937928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-na"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=937928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}