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On September 30, The Ottawa Hospital became the first Canadian hospital to accept umbilical cord blood donations from local families. The collections marked the launch of Canada’s first national donor cord blood bank, spearheaded by Canadian Blood Services which spent the better part of the year raising money to launch the program.
Following the launch in Ottawa, it was announced that Brampton Civic Hospital north of Toronto will become one of three other hospitals capable of collecting cord blood stem cell samples for donation – the others being located in Edmonton and Vancouver.
William Osler Health System, which operates the Brampton Hospital, announced it is entering a formal partnership with Canadian Blood Services to operate the donor cord blood bank. The organization expects the cord blood collection process will begin early in 2014.
Canadian Blood Services believes that cord blood donations will help the approximately 50 percent of Canadians in need of stem cell transplants find hope for an improved quality of life. Until now Canada was the only developed country among the G8 not to have a national donor cord blood bank. As a result, minority or mixed-ethnicity patients who are prevalent across Canada were left with few therapeutic options.
Families can also bank with private cord blood banking facilities as a means of ensuring their own children can access their cord blood stem cells for potential therapy if ever the need arises.