For Zhao Mingxing, who became the 7,375th hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) donor for the China Marrow Donor Program and the 257th HSC donor in Shenzhen last week, donating HSC is not only harmless to the health, but can also help those in need.
Zhao is originally from Shaanxi Province and is currently working in Shenzhen. The beneficiary is a boy from Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, who suffers from severe thalassemia, the Shenzhen Evening News reported yesterday.
In 2008, Zhao registered at the age of 21 to become an HSC donor after donating blood in Luohu District.
“At the time, I had a colleague whose child had been diagnosed with thalassemia, therefore I knew something about the disease,” said Zhao.
In October 2017, he learned that his stem cells had been matched with a patient. The official collection was held June 5. He told a reporter from the newspaper that the donation was driven by empathy, as he himself has a 4-year-old daughter.
So far, the number of HSC donors in Shenzhen has reached 257, and more than 39,000 volunteers have registered to donate. Shenzhen is not only the first city in China to popularize voluntary HSC donation, but also has the largest number of registered HSC donors.
“The donors come from all walks of life, including doctors, civil servants, college students, taxi drivers, IT workers, couriers and freelancers,” said Li Ming, deputy director of the blood research center from the Shenzhen No. 2 People’s Hospital.
In Li’s view, the reason Shenzhen has the largest number of HSC donors not only lies in its warm-hearted people, like Zhao, but is also inseparable from the city’s effective donation mechanism.
“HSC donors are all voluntary blood donors, which results in a stable and large number of donors,” said Li, adding that the model was first created by Shenzhen and has been adopted by other cities.
“When people donate blood for a second time, we will try to recruit them to be an HSC donor,” said Lan Yuxiao, deputy director of the blood donation service department of Shenzhen Blood Center.
According to Lan, if people donate blood two or more times, it shows that they possess a stronger willingness and a certain level of knowledge about blood donation.
Official data shows that voluntary blood donation was first launched in Shenzhen in 1993. At present, there are more than 2,600 registered voluntary blood donors, among whom 700 are active volunteers every year.