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Canada’s first national donor cord blood bank is finally open after a long awareness and fundraising effort spearheaded by Canadian Blood Services.
The donor bank allows Canadian families to donate their children’s umbilical cords rather than discarding them, which experts suggest will benefit over 1,000 Canadians currently in need of potentially life-changing stem cell transplants.
Cord blood donations will be collected at The Ottawa Hospital as the first samples sent to the donor bank. By mid-2014, cord blood collection specialists at hospitals in Brampton, Edmonton, and Vancouver will also donate cord blood stem cells to the donor bank.
Dr. Robert Klaassen, a hematologist and oncologist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, is thrilled about the national donor cord blood bank. Klaassen feels that too many families are at risk by relying on bone marrow donations – risks that are significantly lessened through cord blood.
“It’s very difficult to get the bone marrow itself because you have to get a perfect match, it’s very unforgiving whereas the nice thing about cord cells is because they are from a newborn baby they tend to be more accepting of the fact that it’s not their normal environment.”
The donor bank allows families to potentially help change the lives of others. However, families concerned about the well-being of their own children can bank cord blood with a private facility to keep it all in the family.