The National Public Cord Blood Bank launched its first collection site in Ottawa last fall, which helped Canada to join the rest of the G8 to hold a donor cord blood collection program. The program announced additional collection sites in four hospitals across the country, mainly located in ethnically diverse neighborhoods.
Hospital and Women's Health BC in the Vancouver metropolitan area is one of the selected collection sites. In January, the hospital was named as one of four Canadian collection sites, as well as institutions in Ottawa, Brampton and Edmonton.
The four sites are now collecting cord blood for validation purposes, and officially open later in 2014. the objective of the national cord blood donation program is to provide cord blood transplantation potential of stem cells for families who are not chosen to the cord blood bank of their own baby.
the donor program is managed by Canadian Blood Services and the non-profit organization recognized the importance of the opening of a cord blood collection site in one of the cities the largest and most diverse in Canada. Dr. Jan Christilaw, president of the Hospital of BC Women, lobbied for cord blood collection site.
"People who are more difficult to find matches for are those of ethnic minorities, and given the ethnic diversity of the population of Vancouver, I felt that we were in the best position to add great value and complexity of the public National cord Blood Bank ".
announcement of cord blood collection in British Columbia was also welcomed by other experts in cord blood. Dr. Robert Casper, founder and medical director at Insception Lifebank, believes the national public cord blood bank will help encourage more Canadian families to consider all options regarding the cord blood bank.
"It validates the idea that banking cord blood is an important thing to do. And for those who can not afford to pay for private banking of cord blood, it takes the pressure because they know there will be lots of samples in the Canadian bank. "