Mother Takes Stem Cell Plea to House of Lords

The mother of Eva Winston Hart - a seriously ill three-year-old suffering from leukaemia - will travel to Westminster on Tuesday 17 April to appeal to members of the House of Lords to do more to save cord blood for the treatment of life-threatening illnesses.

Amy Winston Hart will join a panel of distinguished scientists who are speaking at a House of Lords seminar about adult stem cell therapies. She will call on the Government to do more to save cord blood.

Cord blood, blood from the umbilical cord, is a rich source of stem cells which can be used by doctors to address life threatening conditions like leukaemia, from which Eva suffers.

When doctors looked for a cord blood match for Eva, however, none could be found in the UK and the family had to endure months of uncertainty before a match was finally located in America.

Talking ahead of her presentation, Amy Winston-Hart said, "Any parent will understand the worry you suffer when your child is ill. We went through many months of heartache as we waited for doctors to be able to help Eva.

"Our wait was made longer as at the moment a vast majority of cord blood in the UK is simply thrown in the bin. This meant we had to look abroad to find a suitable match. Every cord is potentially life saving and we wouldn't want other families to go through this and so feel the government really must take action to make sure there are proper facilities in place for saving cord blood."

Dr Peter Hollands, who will also address the seminar, explained "The Government and business need to adopt a strategic approach to cord blood storage in order to prevent situations like this in the future. There is no way other families should have to experience the stress caused to the Winston Harts."

He added, "Public banking of cord blood represents a life saving resource. At the moment in the UK less than one per cent of the available cord blood goes into the NHS public bank in Edgeware. The Anthony Nolan Trust is also developing a public cord blood bank in Nottingham. The critical area is funding as both of these public banks are limited in their activities due to financial constraints.

"The general public must be made more aware of the massive potential in cord blood and adequate funding is required to fully realise this potential and to start saving more lives."

The seminar is the first of two that will contrast the problems associated with human embryonic stem cell research and the opportunities presented by adult stem cell therapies.

The seminars are being facilitated by Lord Alton of Liverpool in order that peers can be kept abreast of latest developments in preparation for the Lords debate on 'Stem Cells and Related Issues' on 3 May and the publication of the Government's draft bill on Human Embryology and Fertility which is expected in May.