Blood stem cell donation: a model for worldwide cooperation in transplantation.

HSCT was performed.6 John Goldman was widely respected in the fi eld of haematology and he was one of the pioneers who laid the foundation stones for the fi eld of unrelated donor marrow transplantation.7 Together with Professor Jon Van Rood, who made crucial discoveries in the role of HLA and laid the groundwork for the tissue typing that would make blood stem cell transplants possible, Professor Goldman set in motion the fi rst steps in the creation of the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA), with Donnall Thomas as its fi rst President. The WMDA is the de facto global organisation that many look to for standards and answers pertaining to unrelated donor blood stem cell donation. It also coordinates the activities of blood stem cell donor and cord blood registries around the world.8 The WMDA plans and implements standards for blood stem cell registries and develops recommendations that help to ensure the safety of donors and patients around the world.9 The Serious (Product) Events and Adverse Reactions (S(P)EAR) committee of the WMDA has contributed to the monitoring and enhancing the safety of our donors and recently launched a fi rst-ofits-kind online reporting system for global vigilance and surveillance in unrelated donors who have donated blood stem cells for transplantation.10 The WMDA turned 25 years old in the year 2013 and, thanks to the groundwork laid down through the last two decades of hard work, it is now meeting its mission to “foster international collaboration to facilitate the exchange of high quality blood stem cells for clinical transplantation worldwide and to promote the interests of donors”.11,12 The WMDA network now represents more than 73 donor registries, 160 cord blood banks, and 350 donor centres, which have more than 24 million donors listed in 55 different countries. Thanks to the concerted efforts of cord blood banks and blood stem cell registries around the world, transplant centres now report that there is now greater ease in fi nding a suitable unrelated donor or cord blood unit than