Please donate your cord blood when you give birth (trying to save my friend's life)

[madamceladon]

Dear pregnant ladies

I am a MN user working on a campaign to increase stem cell donor registration and cord blood donation, especially by BAME communities, to try to save my friend's life.

If you are pregnant and able to do this (its only offered at Luton and Dunstable Hospital, St George’s Hospital and University College London Hospital), or if you are under 40 (pregnant or not), please consider donating.

My friend Yvette Chin is dying of a rare blood cancer and her only hope for survival is to find a match for stem cell therapy.
Yvette is mixed race Chinese and Jamaican.
White UK patients have a 70% chance of finding a genetic match through the registries, and BAME patients about 25% - it is even harder for mixed race patients.
We are campaigning on this as an equalities issue.
More info is on our campaign website:
www.swabforyvette.com/

She's been in the media - listen to minute 39 to hear her interviewed on BBC London.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0btn6kb

metro.co.uk/2022/03/29/woman-with-cancer-cant-find-stem-cell-donor-because-shes-mixed-race-16359183/

Info on cord blood donation:
www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/cord-blood-bank/

You can sign up as a donor (not cord blood) by a postal registration through DKMS - it is just a cheek swab, easier than an LFT.
www.dkms.org.uk/get-involved/virtual-drives/yvette

If you are in London we are running a donor registration event in Chinatown on Sunday 24 April.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/swabforyvette-stem-cell-donor-drive-in-chinatown-tickets-311882387617

Please share this campaign in your networks, if you have experience of donating cord blood or of bone marrow donation I'd love to hear it.

If MNHQ are interested in supporting our campaign please contact me.

This is such an important campaign, OP and i hope your friend can find a match

I havent clicked all your links, but I wanted to donate my DD's cord blood last summer as she was born at St Georges. However the cord blood can only be collected if you give birth Mon-Fri 9am-5pm (at least this is the case at St Georges). We all know that babies don't keep to office hours!! It would be amazing if the hospitals were able to offer a 24hr service. We weren't able to donate as DD was born on a weekend.

Wishing Yvette all the best.

thanks @AnotherNC22 that really kind. Like many things, it all comes down to funding and adminstration systems unfortunately! the postal sign up for adults is so easy though.

I'm planning to donate x

Good luck, OP. I really hope they find a match for Yvette.

I donated my cord blood when I had DC1 to the Anthony Nolan bank at Kings College hospital in London.