World Cancer Day

Save the Cord Foundation is an Official Participant in World Cancer Day.

Don’t sit back! Get up and spread the good news! We can beat cancer with cord blood! It is already happening and we are going to celebrate cord blood’s success on World Cancer Day.Join us to spread the word to parents and medical professionals about this valuable medical resource. Let’s encourage more parents to save the cord. Let’s encourage more hospitals to launch public cord blood donation programs.

Save the Cord Foundation is a proud participant in World Cancer Day (visit the WCD site). Of course, cancer awareness and cord blood education go year round but this February 4th everyone is making a special effort to get the word out! Why is this important? First of all, though doctors have not yet “cured” cancer it is fair to say that huge progress has been made. Part of that progress is largely due to cord blood!

At Save the Cord Foundation, World Cancer Day will kick off a series of articles and interviews with cancer survivors, the doctors who treat them and, of course, parents who have donated their child’s cord blood. Join us as we reach out to members of the medical community and parents to explain how cord blood is being used to treat 80+ diseases including many blood cancers.

IMPACT OF COVID-19:

Has COVID-19 delayed or cancelled a stem cell transplant for you or a family member?

Ask your doctor about a cord blood stem cell transplant. Cord blood is easier to match than bone marrow (fewer matching criteria) and can be easily shipped in days. For many cancer patients during the pandemic, cord blood has provided new hope when bone marrow donors were no longer available.

Discover our #WeCanICan: Beat Cancer with Cord Blood series:

FACT: Cord blood is often used to treat things like lymphoma, leukemia and sickle cell anemia.

We support public cord blood donation programs worldwide like Be The Match, State led programs like the Arizona Public Cord Blood Program (US), Hawai’i Cord Blood Bank (US), Jeevan Cord Blood Bank (India), Anthony Nolan (UK), Canadian Blood Services (Canada) . . . the list goes on. But, the key to these programs is having doctors and nurses on board in each hospital.

FACT: Once thought of as experimental, cord blood transplants have become more and more common. Since the first cord blood transplant was performed on a patient suffering from Fanconi Anemia over 25 years ago there have been more than 35,000 umbilical cord blood transplants in the world.

There is also an urgency to increase cord blood donations from minority and mixed race families, just like with bone marrow donations.
Current practice in most hospitals is to just throw cord blood away as medical waste when a baby is born. However, cord blood holds tons of valuable non-controversial stem cells.

FACT: Collecting cord blood does not hurt the mother or child and can be collected safely in the majority of births.

Our mission is remind doctors, nurses, midwives and parents of these facts. And to remind them that there are people waiting for a donor to treat their cancer. Together, #WeCanICan beat cancer with cord blood. Every action is important on #WorldCancerDay!
Give life twice. #Savethecord.

In addition the materials provided by Save the Cord Foundation, we invite you to discover these tools and facts sheets on cancer awareness, prevention and treatment (source: World Cancer Day & the Union for International Cancer Control) :