MS mother: I’m storing birth blood in hope it will protect sons

“Insurance policy”: Georgia Woods and Alfie, whose cord tissue is a source of stem cells
Nigel Howard
19 February 2016

A young mother with multiple sclerosis today told how she had invested her life savings in storing her umbilical cord blood in the hope that it can be used to cure her and protect her sons from the condition.

Georgia Woods, 26, is believed to be one of the first to preserve her birth bloods as she awaits a cure for MS and as an “insurance policy” against her children developing the debilitating condition.

The hotel manager from Croydon was diagnosed with MS a week before her wedding two years ago. She is now registered blind after it damaged her optic nerves.

She and husband Dean spent about £2,000 storing the bloods and cord tissue — a rich source of stem cells — after the birth of second son Alfie at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, on February 1. Brother Harley is four.

Mrs Woods told the Standard: “Nobody really knows what it can do for MS. Maybe in the future something is going to come along and I will be able to have a cure. It gives you that little bit of hope. Hope is a great thing — it gets you out of bed.”

The couple are storing the cord blood for 25 years with Cells4Life, the UK’s largest stem cell bank. A phlebotomist waited in an adjacent room and drained her placenta and umbilical cord of the blood after Alfie’s birth. In 2014, Cells4Life became the first bank in the UK to provide cord tissue for patient therapy.

MS is not considered a hereditary disease but is linked to genetic factors, meaning that there is a slightly higher risk where another family member has the neurological condition. About 100,000 people in the UK have MS, with most diagnosed in their twenties and thirties.

Stem cells are produced by bone marrow and can turn into different types of blood cells. Doctors in Sheffield last month revealed that some MS patients had been able to walk again after receiving stem cell transplants.

Mrs Woods said the stored stem cells would eliminate the need to search for a matching donor if either of her sons became ill.

“We hope we would never need to use it for them,” she said. “It’s just there as a safeguard for the future.” Wayne Channon, chairman of Cells4Life, said: “Stem cells are so effective because they can repair or replace almost any cell in the body.”