The Bone Marrow Donor Institute (BMDI) Cord Blood Bank celebrated the release of its 500th cord blood unit for life saving transplant.

The cord blood units have provided patients with leukaemia, immune defects, marrow failure and a variety of genetic disorders throughout Australia and many countries world-wide, a second chance of life.

At the celebration event, Susan, a mother who made the decision to donate the unit of cord blood that became the 500th to be released from the bank, spoke about her motivation to donate her newborn’s cord blood.

Christine McCartin, mother of identical twins Jared and Connor, both diagnosed at 13 months of age with a rare form of leukaemia only curable by blood forming stem cell transplantation, spoke about the life saving cord blood transplants that her boys underwent.

“I cannot express enough my gratitude to the mothers who have donated their baby’s cord blood for this truly amazing cause.  You have given us what we didn’t dare dream possible,” Christine said.

Jared and Connor are now cancer free.

The Bank is one of three public cord blood banks in Australia that together form the AusCord Network. The BMDI Cord Blood Bank was established with the aid of funding from the Bone Marrow Donor Institute (now Fight Cancer Foundation) in 1996, prior to the announcement of Government funding, in a shared arrangement between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories, in 2000.

The Bank’s midwives collect cord blood from the Royal Women’s Hospital, Frances Perry House, Box Hill Hospital and Angliss Hospital. To date, the Cord Blood Bank has banked nearly 12,000 cord blood units and is currently releasing on average 50 units for transplantation each year. The bank has released 153 units for Australian patients and 347 for international patients across 22 countries.

The Bank is managed by a consortium of the Fight Cancer Foundation, The Royal Children’s Hospital and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.