Next Biosciences donates over R50 000 to Choc

The Childhood Cancer Foundation of South Africa (Choc) received over R50 000 from Netcells Families of Hope programme.

Families of Hope is a cord blood donor programme which aims to provide children from disadvantaged families with stem cell transplants. Stem cell transplants can help treat diseases such as leukaemia, sickle-cell disease and anaemia.

There is a one in four chance that biological siblings will be a genetic match and therefore a stem cell transplant could be used to treat a sibling. If a disadvantaged child requires a bone marrow stem cell transplant and their mother is pregnant and expecting a full biological sibling Next Biosciences will facilitate the collection of the umbilical cord blood at the time of delivery. It will then be transported to a laboratory to be processed, tested and stored.

Also read: Support Choc’s Childhood Cancer Day on 15 February

Netcells is Next Bioscience’s umbilical cord stem cell banking service, giving expectant parents the opportunity to collect their baby’s umbilical cord, blood and tissue stem cells at birth and cryogenically freeze them for potential future medical use.

Gynaecologists who do cord blood collections for Next Biosciences are also given the opportunity to donate their procedural fees to the programme.

Catherine Holmes, the managing director of Netcells, said that as there was an excess of gynaecologists who had donated their fees, R59 473 was donated to the foundation, as their goals are similar to those of Netcells.

Read: West Pack Lifestyle donates R80 000 to Chock

The money donated to Choc will be used to contribute to the well-being of children with cancer and life-threatening blood disorders as well as their families.”We have always given the gynaes the option to donate their procedural fees to a charity and Choc was often the chosen charity due to the fact that our goals are closely aligned. When we launched the Families of Hope Programme in 2015, we decided to formalise it and now we donate all extra funds, not needed for the programme, to Choc,” said Holmes.

Zelda Jacobs, the communications manager for Choc, said the donation will go towards various services which the foundation provides, including the Choc houses, counselling, emotional support, food support and transport to and from treatment.

Details: Choc 086 111 3500.

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