Could you donate Stem Cells to Anthony Nolan? It's FREE :-)

Preganant? considering starting a family? Have you considered donating your umbilical cord blood to Anthony Nolan?

You could help save a life :-)

Please follow this link:

http://www.anthonynolan.org/What-we-do/stem-cell-donation.aspx

The service is FREE and would utilise the life saving properties of tissue which would normally be disposed of after your babies birth......something for nothing..and then some!

Risks 'taken' in illegal cord blood collections

Parents, hospitals and private firms are being warned over risky and illegal collections of umbilical cord blood.

The Human Tissue Authority said if proper guidelines were not followed samples may be contaminated and safety compromised on maternity wards.
The regulator has received reports of untrained and unlicensed people taking the blood - with one sample even obtained in a hospital car park. The blood is sought because of its potential role in combating disease. It is a rich source of stem cells, which are used to help treat diseases such as leukaemia.

But some believe the potential of stem cells goes much further. Stem cells can been used to create many different types of tissue and, in theory, could be used to repair and replace damaged organs as well as treating diseases ranging from Alzheimer's to cancer.
Due to the growing interest in the issue, the HTA started regulating cord blood collection in July 2008. Since then its routine monitoring of sample collection has raised some worrying findings, according to the regulator.

To read the full story click HERE to visit the BBC Health Website.

But what is Cord Blood and how is it used?Watch this to find out :-)





Liquid Gold ? Oh no, this is far more precious than that.
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Cord Blood Donation Information.

Though about donating cord blood after the birth of your baby ? Want to know more about how to go about it ?

Cord blood is the blood that remains in the placenta and umbilical cord after a baby is born. It is rich in stem cells, which can help to cure many life threatening diseases.

The stem cells found in cord blood restore the function of the patient’s immune and blood producing systems. It is an alternative to using bone marrow, with the advantage of being immediately available when required.

Following the birth of a baby, the placenta and umbilical cord are usually thrown away along with these life saving stem cells.

To view the NHS Cord Blood Bank Website please click HERE.

This is a relatively new procedure, but more hospitals are to be involved in the near future.

"I wanted to save my baby's cord blood,but the hospital don't offer the service"

When Natalie Salama-Levy gives birth to her second child at the end of next month she wanted to be able to donate its cord blood.

Sadly,even now there is still a great shortage of hospitals offering new mums the chance to save the cord blood held within their new childs umbilical cord. Many women such as Natalie are being told that the service is not available at the hospitals that they have their children delivered at even though the possible uses for this amazing substance are being realised more and more as scientists discover the secrets of stem cell material.

So, Unfortunately despite the fact that she is prepared to donate to help others she can not due to a nationwide lack o hospitals offering a cord blodd harvesting service."I am having the baby at the Royal Free, London, which is a very large hospital. My consultant there was very supportive, but unfortunately they are not one of the hospitals that donate cord blood which is a real shame," said 37-year-old Natalie.

\to read more of this story please click HERE to visit the BBC Health News Website.

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Cord blood stem cell transplant hopes boosted.

A technique which may eventually remove the need for matched bone marrow transplants has been used in humans for the first time.

It is hoped that "master cells" taken from umbilical cords could be used on any patient without rejection. The latest advance, published in the journal Nature Medicine, greatly multiplies the tiny number of cells from the cord ready for a transplant. UK charity Leukaemia Research said this could be the "holy grail" for doctors.

To read the complete story click HERE to visit the BBC Health Webpages.
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The leukaemia girl and the baby brother who couldn't be her saviour

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this is a story that i find terribly sad because i know that the information about the stem cell collection is incorrect in some aspects.
Anyone who has been reading this blog for any amount of time will know that i have reported about the work of the Anthony Nolan Trust Cord Blood collection service and the free service that they offer to new mums at the Kings College Hospital in London. Now i realise that the couple in the story wanted to ensure that the cord blood collected was used for their own child's treatment, but surely if the siblings cord blood was compatible then the ANT would possibly be able to match them and use the cord blood to treat the young girl anyway ?
I suppose the saddest thing about this story is that the couple allowed the hospital to dispose of the cord blood in the end, but had they been treated at the Kings College hospital they could have asked for the CB to be collected by The ANT and saved, perhaps to help another child with leukaemia ?. If nothing else, this just shows how much we need to try and get cord blood collection services in more hospitals in the UK

Read the story on the Daily Mail website here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1173512/The-leukaemia-girl-baby-brother-saviour.html

Just found out about cord blood donation..sounds amazing!

Terie Duffy,cord blood coordinator for Anthony Nolan, with donor mums

Cord blood donation. Now if you are like me you have probably never heard of this term until now, and if by chance you have heard about it, do you know what the story is behind it ?
Let me enlighten you a little, based on what I have found out so far:

Cord Blood is the residual blood that is left over in the part of the umbilical cord that is disposed of after mother and child have been separated. In other words, it would normally be disposed of by the hospital when the birth is complete.
This cord blood is astonishing stuff, it contains large amounts of hematopoietic stem cells, brand new and incredibly "naive" cells that ( due to being still immature) can change into numerous types of cell, this allows them to be used to "repair" damaged cells in area's such as the brain,bone marrow and even the heart !.
I am still swatting up on this information, but this is a link to 2 UK websites which contain a lot more useful information: The NHS one is here at : http://cord.blood.co.uk/index.asp and this is the Anthony Nolan site: http://www.anthonynolan.org.uk/cordblood/cordbloodprogramme/

This sounds like a very promising new development in the fight to find cures and treatments for a wide range of illnesses, including Leukaemia, and the best part about it is that it carries no invasive procedures to "harvest" the cord blood......so what is the problem ?
Well the main problem currently within the UK is that there are only 5 hospitals that are offering the cord blood donation harvest to new parents.4 that are run through the NHS Cord Blood Bank service at Northwick Park Hospital in Middlesex, Barnet General Hospital in North London, Luton and Dunstable Hospital in Bedfordshire,Watford General Hospital in Hertfordshire and Mater Infirmorum Hospital over in Belfast. the King's College Hospital in London also provides a service via the Anthony Nolan Trust.In the US there are currently 20+ hospitals involved in Cord Blood harvesting, thus many more mothers are able to give this life saving gift at the time of their child's birth.

Have a look at the video that is posted in the left hand column of this blog for more details.