Cord Blood Collection Centre Opens in Leicester, UK

Leicester’s Royal Infirmary and General Hospital have opened a centre for cord blood collection, making the process of finding matches for stem cell transplants easier for those in need.

The new Anthony Nolan cord blood collection centre will be headed by Henny Braund, who hopes to increase the number of cord blood transplants across the UK. He believes that if the centre could collect 50 000 cord blood units by 2016, over 80% of the transplants requests in the UK would be met.

The service was initially offered only to mothers that were delivery their babies via caesarean section. Now, all families will be able to donate their children’s cord blood to the Anthony Nolan collection centre. 

The first mother to donate her child’s cord blood to the centre was Samantha Norman of Anstey. She had only recently discovered the benefits of cord blood banking and was enthusiastic about the prospect of helping to save another person’s life.

^{Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-12300324}