Everyday you save lives
Lisa
Lisa was a new employee at Bloodworks Northwest when she first heard about the opportunity for umbilical cord blood donation. Pregnant at the time with her first child, Lisa quickly decided to participate. “The cord is something that usually gets discarded,” she says. “Why not save a life with it?”
She contacted the Cord Blood Program and filled out a few simple forms. In the delivery room, hospital staff collected the stem-cell-rich blood from her umbilical cord while Lisa cuddled her newborn son, James.
Nine years later, the Cord Blood Program called Lisa with amazing news. “They had a match for our cord blood—a four-year-old boy with leukemia,” Lisa says, “It’s a good thing I was in my office when they called, because I teared up when I heard!” At home, Lisa sat down with her son James and shared the news that the special blood from his birth was going to help save a little boy. “He had seen his grandparents go through cancer, so he knew just how serious the situation was. James cried, too.”
“As a mother, there is no greater hope than having and raising a healthy child,” says Lisa. “It was an honor to donate cord blood when my son was born, and to pass that hope on to another family.”