15,000 mainland bone marrow donations made

The number of bone marrow donations made on the Chinese mainland recently surpassed 15,000, including 372 donations made to patients in 30 countries and regions, according to the China Marrow Donor Program.

China saw its first hematopoietic stem cell donation from an unrelated volunteer in 1996. Since then, it took nearly two decades to achieve the first milestone of 5,000 donations and another five years to reach 10,000 donations.

"This time, only two years and eight months have passed to increase by another 5,000 donations," the nonprofit organization that runs the national databank on donors said on Tuesday.

According to the organization's branch in Henan province, the 15,000th donation came from Chen Yuan, a 35-year-old engineer in Henan's Xuchang city.

Chen began regularly donating blood in 2007. In 2010, he came across an advocacy brochure on stem cell donation when giving blood and signed up to be a registered donor.

In October last year, he was notified that his stem cells matched a blood disease patient.

"I later researched online about blood disease patients and stem cell transplants and understood that making such a donation would not harm my body," he said. "My family members had misgivings at the beginning but eventually supported my decision after I shared my knowledge with them."

With the help of local Red Cross workers, Chen adjusted his circadian rhythms and diet in preparation for the transplant. On Tuesday morning, he successfully completed his donation in Zhengzhou, Henan province.

According to the organization, the number of registered stem cell donors had topped 3.27 million as of Monday, with volunteers aged between 18 to 35 accounting for 45 percent.

Last year, the organization attracted 150,000 new registrations and completed 1,968 transplants, up by 70 from the previous year.

Five donations to patients from overseas were performed last year, including the first-ever donation to a patient from the Philippines.

The organization said that over 96 percent of patients seeking a stem cell match would be able to locate a potential donor with a high rate of success from the donor registry.