CLEVELAND, Ohio - March 11, 2008 - Nathan Mumford, Gayle Serls, Sophie Avery, and Brad Harden share a special bond with four preteen children somewhere out in the world. When the children were born, their parents chose to donate their umbilical cord blood instead of allowing it to be thrown away, as it typically is in delivery rooms.
Serls, Avery, Harden, and Mumford were each diagnosed with aggressive forms of leukemia, are alive today thanks to those donations - and to Dr. Mary Laughlin's research on cord blood transplants.
Dr. Laughlin, who is among the world's foremost experts in cord blood stem-cell transplants, is working to ensure that more people have access to the potentially lifesaving treatment. In January 2008, the Cleveland Cord Blood Center began to collect, store and distribute stem-cell-rich umbilical cord blood for the treatment of deadly blood cancers and for research into other life-threatening illnesses. Each year, 44,000 people - 90 percent of them adults - are diagnosed with leukemia. Unlike the controversy that has swirled around research on and the use of embryonic stem cells, stem cells harvested from umbilical cord blood come without controversy. These cells otherwise would be discarded and cord blood collection poses no harm to the baby.
Nathan Mumford
When Nathan Mumford learned he had leukemia in August 2004, he was given nearly no hope of survival. When no match was found among family members for a bone marrow transplant, Dr. Mary Laughlin offered him newfound hope with the suggestion that he consider a cord blood stem cell transplant. In November 2004, he received a cord blood stem cell transplant from the cord blood of an African-American baby girl. That transplant saved his life.
Perhaps more than most, Mumford knows the tragedy that cancer can inflict a patient’s life and family. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease in the third grade, and lost years of childhood in treatment. During his junior year of college in 2001, his mother, Karen, was diagnosed with breast cancer, and lost her battle in 2005, only months after he received his lifesaving transplant. He now heads up the Karen E. Mumford Cancer Foundation, named in her honor, which is dedicated to helping serve the needs of cancer patients.
“Since the transplant, I have a lot more energy,” he noted. “I sometimes have spurts of energy for a couple of days at a time when I can play sports like a teenager. My eighth grade cousin even has a hard time keeping up with me. I still feel younger than my age. I also enjoy sledding and throwing snowballs with my friend’s children. It’s fun because I missed some of my childhood and I get the chance to make up for it now.”
“I try to have as much fun as possible and truly appreciate the little things in life a lot more,” he said.
Mumford advocates greater awareness among a more diverse cross-section of people in terms of the tremendous value and non-controversial benefits of cord blood donation. “African Americans and other minority communities are underserved when it comes to cord blood donations. More lives can be saved in the African American, Hispanic and Asian communities as more parents donate to public banks such as the Cleveland Cord Blood Bank. By increasing the number of cord blood stem cells available in public banks, more African Americans and other minorities will be able to take advantage of these life-giving treatment options.”
Sophie Avery
Despite years working as a licensed practical nurse at hospitals in Warren, Ohio, Sophie Avery had missed warning signs: Her fatigue she attributed to working too much. She didn't call the doctor until the pin-dot bruising caused by the pressure of her socks had spread up her legs. Lab results revealed that she had a platelet count of 6,000 - about 144,000 less than normal.
Avery, who had just turned 47, spent seven weeks in the hospital, undergoing bone marrow biopsies and chemotherapy and dealing with the vomiting, hair loss and other sicknesses caused by the treatment. By the end of January, her leukemia was in remission and she was well enough to go home.
Fourteen months later, the cancer was back. More chemo, another remission, and then another relapse in March 2000.
Because of her background in nursing, Avery understood that the treatment she faced was daunting. She put her faith in Dr. Laughlin - and in the lifesaving potential of cord blood stem cells.
On September 27, 2000, after weeks of treatment that purposely eradicated her immune system and left her vulnerable to pneumonia and other infections, Avery was injected with lifesaving cells from an unknown Italian-born baby boy, whom she affectionately began referring to as "Guido." Then it became a waiting game, to see whether Guido's stem cells would take as their purpose going to work on her leukemia. Within two weeks, she began engrafting new cells. The treatment was working. She went home the next month and began the long process of recovery. Avery has been cancer-free ever since.
In September, she tells people, she'll turn 8 years old. "I have a new birthday - September 27. I always tell people that it's my second birthday." And somewhere out in the world, there's an 8-year-old boy and his family who saved her life, simply by donating what so many others discard.
Brad Harden
Brad Harden, of Cleveland, was a strong, healthy 22-year-old in 1997. A dedicated weightlifter, he could bench press more than 300 pounds. When he developed a fever, aches, weakness and fatigue, he assumed he had caught a summertime cold or flu. When he finally went to the doctor, blood tests revealed acute myelogenous leukemia.
Chemotherapy and radiation were able to force his cancer into remission, but not for long. Within six months, the leukemia was back. Over the next two years, he would have several more treatments, but after each one, the leukemia would come back even more quickly. Doctors at Ohio State University Medical Center told Harden his only hope would be a bone marrow transplant.
Serls, Harden and Avery were all placed on the nationwide bone marrow transplant list. Their family members were tested as potential donors, but no one was a close enough match. Harden, who is African-American, faced even more challenging odds. African-American patients in need of a bone marrow transplant tend to be more difficult to match, and the number of African-Americans who register as potential bone marrow donors is relatively small.
Harden's experience inspired his sister, Nicole. When her daughter, Jada, was born in January, Nicole donated the umbilical cord blood instead of allowing it to be thrown away. In addition to helping to treat other cancer patients like her brother, Nicole has seen articles about how stem cells may be able to cure other diseases, as well. "There's no doubt that without a cord blood transplant I wouldn't be here today," Harden says. "That's why I don't understand why more mothers don't do it."
Gayle Serls
Gayle Serls was one of the first adults to receive a cord blood transplant. As of May 1, 2008, it will be 12 years since tiny umbilical cord stem cells went to work against her leukemia. "I have no doubt that I would not be here," Serls says. "The treatment saved my life."
On August 7, 1995, doctors at Duke University Hospital told her the bad news: acute lymphocytic leukemia. And then even worse news: Serls had Philadelphia chromosome, a condition that made long-term remission unlikely. "The only thing that would save me was a transplant. I needed a whole new immune system," she says.
Serls received the infusion of cells on May 1, 1996. By the middle of June, she was able to go home. After another month, she was off all medication. Over the years since the lifesaving procedure, Serls says doctors have searched for the Philadelphia chromosome that had been her death sentence. They have not found it.
Over the past 12 years, Serls has gotten to see her two children grow into adulthood, seen her son get married, and is eagerly anticipating the birth of her first grandchild, due in late September. "The longer you can look back, the more precious it becomes, the more excited you are about living," she says.
Knowing that she is alive today because she received a cord blood transplant, Serls now works as a staff assistant at the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank in Durham, NC. She believes fervently that more knowledge of and access to this potentially lifesaving treatment is necessary. Serls says the donation procedure is easy for mothers. All parents have to do is sign a consent form, and they even have the opportunity to withdraw their consent if they change their minds, she says. She hopes to encourage her son and daughter-in-law to donate the umbilical cord blood when their child is born later this year.
Chance brought all three to Dr. Laughlin. Serl's mother saw a story on the evening news about the doctor's promising research on using cord blood transplants to treat children diagnosed with leukemia. Harden's friend read an article on the Internet; Avery's doctor heard Dr. Laughlin speak at a conference.
Now that the Cleveland Cord Blood Center has begun collecting in Northeast Ohio, expectant mothers will have the opportunity to save another's life.
The Cleveland Cord Blood Center (CCBC) collects, preserves and stores umbilical cord blood of Northeast Ohio's diverse population; supports advanced research in maternal-child health; and offers education and training programs for those served. Located in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, CCBC is a public, not-for-profit 501(c)(3), supported by generous gifts from the Abraham J. and Phyllis Katz Foundation, and the Dr. Donald J. and Ruth Weber Goodman Philanthropic Fund. For more information, visit www.clevelandcordblood.org or call 1-866-922-3668.