THE ANTHONY NOLAN TRUST AND THE NATIONAL CORD BLOOD PROGRAMME

That this House salutes the pioneering work of the Anthony Nolan Trust in establishing and maintaining a national database of bone marrow donors for which they recruit and tissue-type more than 20,000 new entrants each year, giving around 6,000 children and adults a chance of new life since 1974; notes with interest that the Trust, with the support of the East Midlands Development Agency, has begun the establishment of a new Cord Blood Bank which could become a National Cord Blood Programme of a scale to provide a truly national resource for access to umbilical blood stem cells for future treatment and research; believes that this development offers great hope for the future treatment of a wide range of serious medical conditions; and invites the Secretary of State for Health to take a lead in welcoming the Trust's five year aim to collect 50,000 cord blood units with 30,000 able to be used for research purposes.