THE Sunflower Fund along with cord blood bank CELVI and Next Biosciences are embarking on an exciting journey to save more lives, and want the public to be a part of it.
A baby’s umbilical cord contains blood and tissue, which is a rich source of valuable stem cells. Stem cells are the body’s internal repair kit and have the potential to regenerate and repair damaged tissue.
Current treatments, like stem cell transplants (also called bone marrow transplants) already make use of their potential to regenerate healthy blood and immune systems. That is why it has been used globally for more than 30 years to help regenerate patients’ healthy blood and immune systems in more than 40 000 stem cell transplants.
CELVI is the only hybrid private cord blood bank in Africa, and the hybrid model gives parents the opportunity to store their baby’s newborn stem cells for their family and additionally, make it donatable to a patient in need of a life-saving stem cell transplant.
In collaboration with Next Biosciences and The Sunflower Fund, CELVI is encouraging people to store their baby’s newborn stem cells with it, which will also be registered on The Sunflower Fund Stem Cell Registry. Should it be identified as a potential match for a patient, you will have the obligation free option of donating it to help save the life of someone in need of a life-saving stem cell transplant.
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The Sunflower Fund fights blood diseases like leukaemia by recruiting potential stem cell donors and maintaining a registry of committed donors willing to help anyone in need of a life-saving transplant. Patients only have a 30 per cent chance of finding a match from within their family, and the remaining 70 per cent chance is from an unrelated matching donor.
“The Sunflower Fund is a member of the World Marrow Donor Association and has been recruiting adult stem cell donors for the past 19 years. The partnership with CELVI enables us to serve patients through the additional option of finding a match from the cord blood registry. This is another step towards getting more patients to transplant,” said Alana James, CEO of The Sunflower Fund.
To register and store your child’s cord blood with CELVI contact +27 10 013 1225 Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm. For more information about The Sunflower Fund contact 0800 12 10 82 or visit www.sunflowerfund.org.
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