Cord blood storage for your kids?

With CordBlood banking, it allows a patient to use his own StemCells for treatment later on. The chance of finding a tissue match is highest within the family, followed by race (eg Chinese, Malay)

Stem Cells can be harvested from the pelvis area, or umbilical cord.
A patient who has blood-related illness, might need to replace their stem cells, via own marrow supply (Autologous), or from a third party compatible donor (Allogenic).

Our history with CordBlood banking
Wen Wei (2003) and Wen Yi (2007) is under CordLife.
Wen Kang (2005) is under Stemcord.


Why do we believe in storing our kids' cordblood?
1. We treat cordblood banking like an insurance for their health. We hope it will give us some assurance that if some life- threatening illness should appear, we will have a Second Chance to combat the disease.

2. Daddy was a Marrow donor back in 2002, and he understands what it means for a patient to receive a second chance. It is painful to see a young child (eg suffering from Leukaemia) having to go through the endless needles, and chemo treatments. We can never fully empathies what the patient is going through (both physically and mentally).
Daddy's personal experience reinforce his belief for cordblood storage.

3. With medical advances, we hope that the scope for StemCells research and treatments will improve.

** disclaimer. Please do some online Research if you decide to bank your baby's cordblood. Not everyone agree that Cord blood storage is necessary or helpful :)


Today (7 years after Daddy donated his bone marrow) , we are a happy family.
With 4 kids, Daddy and Mummy are busy, but our daily lives are enriching and fulfilling
(minus the hair-pulling scenes hee hee)

We choose both CordLife and StemCord because we do not want to place our eggs in one basket. For 4th child (2009), we decided too late, to donate her cordblood to Singapore's Public Cordblood bank...

We chose Cordlife because :
- they are accredited (aabb)
- we prefer their customer service, and
- we get referral fees :)

CordLife is having a promotion from now till 15Sep
Refer http://www.cordlife.com/sg/edm/july09

They have a video to relate why CordBlood banking is necessary.
Refer http://www.cordlife.com/sg/aboutus/videoresource.php?target=singaporetvc
(Video 12 : CordLife part of your Life)


References
In Singapore, BMDP (Bone Marrow Donor Programme) is the organisation who is tissue matching for patients worldwide. They try to bring miracles to patients who suffer from blood-related diseases. If you would like to be a donor or volunteer, please contact them.
http://www.bmdp.org

If you would like to know more about CordBlood banking, please refer to :
http://www.cordlife.com
http://www.stemcord.com
http://www.scbb.com.sg - Singapore Cord Blood Bank (public)

Some interesting reads for me
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cord_blood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cells
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Marrow
http://www.cordbloodbankingguide.com

** Daddy is using a lot of Wiki references, as there is too little publications on BoneMarrow from Singapore. Eg what does a patient goes through? Available treatment and cost? Donor do and don't?

** There are tons of material on YouTube, eg siblings benefiting from stem cells transplant...