‘Read a book, save a life’, urges Anthony Nolan as it launches innovative celebrity e-book collaboration

Open Links, by stand-up comedian and writer Dominic Holland, is the first ever e-novel to be published by a charity. One hundred per cent of the proceeds from this innovative celebrity and charity collaboration will go to Anthony Nolan, the UK’s blood cancer charity and bone marrow register.

The novel, Open Links, is a life-affirming story of hope, family and endeavour; a fairy-tale that will resonate with everyone, but particularly those of us who still dare to dream. 

It took author Dominic Holland more than a year to write – but he is kindly giving 100% of all proceeds to Anthony Nolan, a charity which has been curing people from leukaemia, lymphoma and other blood cancers for four decades.

For Dominic and his actor son Tom Holland, supporting the fight against blood cancer is part of family life. Tom - star of Hollywood movies including The Impossible, How I Live Now, Locke and the forthcoming Ron Howard blockbuster The Heart of the Sea and BBC's eagerly anticipated Wolf Hall - joined the Anthony Nolan bone marrow (or stem cell)  register as soon as he turned 16, and posted a video to YouTube asking his teenage fans to do likewise.

                                                    Dominic Holland and Tom Holland at Anthony Nolan’s Daisy Ball 2014

“I conceived the story and started the manuscript always with a charitable angle in mind,” explained Dominic. “Open Links and Anthony Nolan are a perfect fit for this innovative publishing enterprise, and I hope the novel will strike a chord with anyone who believes in the kindness of strangers and the potential every single one of us has to wake up one morning and do something extraordinary.”

Dominic  added: “Anthony Nolan is a remarkable organisation. Blood cancer is indiscriminate and today it could affect me or any member of my family - leaving us to hope and pray that there is a  match out there and that Anthony Nolan is able to find them on the register ."

Open Links is available for just £3.99 on Kindle, with Anthony Nolan receiving all of the profits. The charity must raise £100 for every person it adds to its bone marrow register, so every book counts, explains Henny Braund, Chief Executive of Anthony Nolan.

“It is a simple equation; the more people who read Open Links, the more lives we can save,” said Henny. “Every 25 e-books sold will enable us to pay for a further person to join the Anthony Nolan register. A person who could be the lifesaving match that one family are desperately waiting for. It’s that straightforward - read a book, help save a life.”

Dominic hosted the Anthony Nolan Supporter Awards earlier this year and was deeply moved by some of the people he spoke to on the evening. “Meeting families who are coping with such difficult circumstances was a humbling experience and has reaffirmed to me exactly why donating the proceeds of Open Links to Anthony Nolan is the right thing to do,” he said, visibly affected by the stories he heard on the evening.

The novel is short and takes only 4 to 5 hours to read – incidentally, the same amount of time it usually takes to donate your stem cells or to play a round of golf. “It’s quite amazing to think that, in the time it takes to read Open Links, you could donate lifesaving stem cells and cure someone of blood cancer. Being able to save someone's life is remarkable and a privilege and that’s why Anthony Nolan deserves our support and our thanks," Dominic commented.

Buy Open Links now for £3.99: http://tinyurl.com/nl7dsak or find out more at www.anthonynolan.org/openlinks

For more information and interview opportunities, contact Emily Rosselli at Anthony Nolan on 020 7424 6588 or email Emily.rosselli@anthonynolan.org  

Key statistics

• Someone is diagnosed with blood cancer every 20 minutes.
• Around 2,000 people in the UK need a bone marrow (or stem cell) transplant from a stranger each year.  This is usually their last chance of survival.
• You have a 25% to 30% chance of having the same tissue type as a sibling.
• 90% of donations take place via PBSC (peripheral blood stem cell collection).  This is an outpatient appointment and is similar to donating blood.

To join the register, you must be aged between 16 and 30, weigh more than 7st 12lbs (50kgs) and be in general good health. For more information about our work or to sign up online, please visit www.anthonynolan.org