Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) raise awareness among the general public and (b) help reduce waiting times for people registering as stem cell donors.

Since 2011 the Department has provided over £26.8 million in financial support to NHS Blood and Transplant and Anthony Nolan to enable the establishment of a unified UK Stem Cell Registry and improve access to, and outcomes of, stem cell donation. There are now 1.6 million donors on the United Kingdom’s aligned stem cell registry which is also part of a worldwide network of 76 stem cell registries, which list over 36 million donors worldwide and co-operate to match donors to patients across the globe.

Currently, the UK Stem Cell Registry and the NHS Cord Blood Bank have helped patients in over 40 countries around the world. NHS Blood and Transplant also supports World Marrow Donor Day which is celebrated globally on the third Saturday of September. There is no waiting list to join the UK Stem Cell Registry.