Previously discarded as medical waste, cord blood stem cells are now used to treat almost 80 different diseases, including some forms of cancer, immune disorders, blood disorders and metabolic disorders.
Cord blood stem cells are also the focal point of some exciting new research that may someday cure illnesses including blindness, Alzheimer’s disease, breast cancer, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
In most countries, parents now have the option to privately store their babies umbilical cord blood stem cells for future use. Only a relatively small number of parents do so, because there is some cost associated with private cord blood banking. Many parents instead choose to donate it to a public cord blood bank, where it can be used by anyone.
Stephanie Comeau’s decided to give her child’s umbilical cord blood to a public cord blood bank. After her child Nathis was born, Stephanie donated his cord blood to the Hema-Quebec Public Cord Blood Bank in Montreal. Stephanie describes the decision: “I really just thought, what a wonderful thing to do, even if it couldn’t benefit us it could benefit someone else, then that would be great,”
A few years later, Stephanie had another child who she named Nolan. Then the worst happened — while Nolan was still an infant, he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. He underwent chemotherapy treatments but they failed to work.
His only choice was to have a stem cell transplant. Doctors looked for a match and the only one that was suitable was his brother’s! Incredibly, it was still available in the public cord bank and no one else had used it.
The transplant went ahead and was a success. Nolan became the first child in Canada to receive an umbilical cord blood stem cell transplant from a sibling via a public stem cell bank. Stephanie never thought the decision to bank her first child’s umbilical cord blood would save the life of his brother!
Source: Cord Blood Stem Cells From One Brother Saves The Other!