We’re thrilled that blood cancer and blood disorder patients will soon benefit from our new cell collection centre in Nottingham. The Anthony Nolan Cell Collection Centre will tackle the problem of delayed donations head on. It will boost capacity by up to 1,300 new donation slots every year and increase the potential to save many more lives while ensuring our incredible donors have the best possible donation experience. The centre will speed up the time to transplant as well as support cutting-edge research into new cell therapies.
We are based within Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, working in partnership with the NIHR Nottingham Clinical Research Facility. Our centre is strategically situated in central England at Queen's Medical Centre – ensuring fast access to donors, the best donation facilities, and speedy onward transport.
A stem cell transplant can be a lifesaving treatment for thousands of patients with blood cancer and blood disorders, and replaces a patient’s stem cells with those from a healthy donor. From these healthy cells a new immune system will grow.
Cells donated at the centre will also support the research and development of new cell and gene therapies, which could treat other life-threatening diseases.
A longstanding global shortage of cell collection facilities means that for too many people, the time it takes to receive a transplant is too long. We can’t always find a well-matched donor who’s immediately able to donate. Fewer than one in five donations happen at the critical point they’re needed. Delays happen and the clock keeps ticking.
And so diseases can progress, patients get sicker and survival chances can reduce.
Claire Gardella and her daughter Sofia, from Nottinghamshire, experienced a long, stressful delay while waiting for Sofia to receive treatment. Sofia, who was only two years old when she underwent her first stem cell transplant, was born with congenital amegakaryocytic thrombocytopenia (CAMT) – a condition that made it difficult for her body to clot blood.
Claire said: “We waited for a whole year before Sofia was able to have her first transplant – the wait was agonising to say the least. It’s wonderful to know this new centre will eliminate that stress and uncertainty for so many patients and families like us.”
The Anthony Nolan stem cell register was the first in the world, established in 1974. We have decades of experience providing cells to patients in the UK and internationally, and we’re the first point of contact for any hospital in the UK looking for an unrelated donor transplant for a patient.
People called upon to donate currently do so at hospitals and independent centres with specialist equipment. However, growing demand for cell-based therapies, like CAR-T treatments, mean these centres are under more pressure than ever.
By managing our own dedicated cell collection centre, we’ll be able to collect high-quality cells from donors at a time that meets the needs of the patient, while ensuring donors have the best possible experience. The centre will also support and expand our work providing special cell donations for research, helping to develop new therapies that have the potential to save countless lives in the future.
The Anthony Nolan Cell Collection Centre adds to our existing presence in Nottingham, with our cell therapy centre located on Nottingham Trent University’s Clifton campus. This site houses our umbilical cord blood bank, and a research facility that looks at new ways to use cord blood in medical treatments.
Donors from across the UK will be able to travel to Nottingham to donate their cells for transplant or research at the cell collection centre. The procedure is performed with a cell separation machine that filters stem cells from the blood. Cells collected for transplant are then couriered to the patient, who may be anywhere in the world waiting for their transplant.
Cells collected from individuals who have agreed to donate for research are delivered to scientists working on new and innovative treatments, maximising the impact our donors can provide for patients.