It’s the blood left in the placenta and umbilical cord after a woman has given birth.

Cord blood contains lots of stem cells, which can be used in lifesaving transplants and/or cell therapy for people with blood cancers & disorders.

Anthony Nolan collects cord blood in five hospitals in London, Manchester, Leicester. Collection only happens after the birth, when the baby is safely delivered. It’s totally risk-free for mothers and newborns.

Stem cells for transplants can come from adults’ blood or bone marrow, as well as from cord blood.

But cord blood transplants have lots of advantages.

Getting adult donations is a long process. If we find someone a match on our register, we have to do more tests on the potential donor, and it takes time to organise the donation and transplant.

Cord blood is banked in our cell therapy centre in Nottingham and is available immediately, for people in desperate need.

Also, donors and recipients don’t need to be an exact match, as the stem cells in cord blood aren’t so mature and can develop to suit their recipient. That means it’s easier to find matches. To find out more about cord please visit this site.

We have been working towards growing our cord blood bank to 10,000 searchable cord blood units. A bank this size means 80% of people who need transplants should be able to find a match. Now that we have reached this size we are focussing on adding high quality, diverse units to the cord blood bank to replace those that are being shipped for patients.

Life-threatening conditions, including:

• leukaemia
• immune-deficiency illnesses, like aplastic anaemia and severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID)
• blood cell production disorders, such as multiple myeloma and lymphoma
• haematological malignancies, like thalassemia major
• congenital metabolic disorders, like Hurler/Hunter syndrome and Duncan’s syndrome.