BEIJING: An e-commerce worker and longtime blood donor in Zhejiang province became the country’s 17,000th bone marrow stem cell donor on Monday morning.
To prepare for the collection of peripheral blood stem cells, the 33-year-old man, surnamed Xu, said he spent Saturday’s Lantern Festival in a hospital, together with Red Cross volunteers and a person who had previously donated bone marrow. “It was the first time that I celebrated the festival in a hospital ward, but I felt great warmth and pride in contributing to saving a life,” he said.
China reported its first bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor in 1996. According to the China Marrow Donor Program, a nonprofit organization that operates a national databank on volunteers, the number of donations reached 10,000 in August 2000,15,000 in April last year, and 17,000 on Monday.
It said 375 donations have been made to patients in 31 countries and regions.
The number of donations last year hit a record 2,157, the organization said, adding that a daily record of 30 donations was also set last year.
Hematopoietic stem cell donations from unrelated volunteers could be lifesaving for patients with blood diseases like leukemia and sickle cell anemia.
The organization has more than 3.4 million volunteers in its registry. Last year, young adults aged 18 to 35 accounted for about 74 percent of new volunteers, with the rest aged 36 to 45.
“The drive has attracted an increasing number of young people and they have become the main force of volunteers and donors nowadays,” it said.
A 35-year-old woman surnamed Shi from Qingdao, Shandong province, signed up for the registry in 2018. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
