Volunteer Yang Yan underwent a four-and-a-half-hour peripheral blood stem cell collection, successfully donating 286 milliliters of hematopoietic stem cell suspension. Photo: web

 
On Monday, the collection room at Zhongda Hospital of Southeast University successfully completed a cross-border "life relay." Volunteer Yang Yan underwent a four-and-a-half-hour peripheral blood stem cell collection, successfully donating 286 milliliters of hematopoietic stem cell suspension. These "seeds of life," carrying the miracle of survival, will be transported via cold chain logistics under dedicated escort to ensure safe arrival at an overseas transplant hospital in the shortest time possible, igniting hope for a Danish patient suffering from a blood disorder.

According to the Nanjing Red Cross, this is the city's first case of hematopoietic stem cell donation to a foreign recipient.

In early 2013, during a blood donation, Yang joined the China Marrow Donor Program as a hematopoietic stem cell donation volunteer. In May, a phone call from the Red Cross connected her life with a stranger she had never met. The message on the other end of the line was that she had initially matched with a blood disease patient far away in Denmark. Watching her "seeds of life" depart to save a patient in a foreign land, Yang was deeply moved and said, " It is my greatest honor to use my modest efforts to extend someone else's life. I sincerely hope that the sister far away recovers soon and smiles again."

Unrelated matches are rarely successful, and cross-border donations are rarer, requiring overcoming multiple challenges such as language, legal, and logistical barriers. Notably, this donation is the 41st cross-border hematopoietic stem cell donation from Jiangsu Province and the first from Jiangsu to Denmark.