Source: Zhuhai Daily 2013-03-13 Page 07

Written by: Wei Ning

Translated by: Lin Wenmin

At noon yesterday, the staff of Zhuhai Red Cross welcomed with flowers the return of Ma Yuehong who had just finished donating her hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in Guangzhou. She is the12th donor of HSCs in Zhuhai, the 246th in Guangdong and the 3331st in the country. In the past week, Ma Yuehong successfully donated her HSCs, saving the life of a leukemia patient.

Ma Yuehong, aged 26, has only worked for a year after finishing her postgraduate study. She is now a teacher in the Sino-French Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Technology of Sun Yat-sen University. Ma Yuehong told the journalist that she registered for HSCs donation in 2009 when she was participating in an unpaid blood donation in her hometown Taizhou, Jiangmen. Last October she was informed of the match.

Ma Yuehong also told the journalist candidly that she had little idea of HSCs donation and that after receiving the notice, she searched related information online and consulted friends who were doctors for advice. After she made a decision and tried to convince her parents with great efforts, she finally got their support.

On March 6th, Ma Yuehong went to the General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command of PLA. The collection of HSCs was completed from 9:00 to 13:00 on March 11th. Yesterday when the journalist saw her, she was full of smiles and said that she felt well, except for some soreness after being injected with rhG-CSF.

It is learned that at about 2:00 pm on March 11th, the staff of the Red Cross carrying Ma Yuehong’s HSCs boarded a plane heading for Suzhou. On arriving at the hospital at 8:00 pm, the HSCs were immediately implanted into the patient’s body. Information of the patient was confidential, and we only know that the patient was a kid.

Ma Yuehong is the first donor of HSCs in Zhuhai this year. The journalist learnt that the success rate of a match is as low as only 0.01%. Every year about 400 to 500 people will register as donors, which is pretty much according to the proportion of population in Zhuhai. Meanwhile, the proportion of successful matches is pretty high, with several cases per year.