Plymouth medical company Biovault Family has revealed that fashion stylist, author and presenter Louise Roe will be using its services to bank her new born baby’s stem cells.
The "influencer", who has more than 662,000 followers on Instagram is expecting her second child with husband Mackenzie in May, 2021, and becomes the latest celebrity to use the facility, after Sky Sports F1 presenter Natalie Pinkham her baby’s cells stored at the Plymouth lab.
Biovault Family offers personalised cord blood and tissue processing and storage services to parents who wish to bank their babies' umbilical cord blood because it is rich in stem cells.
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It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to collect these precious cells which have the ability to change into many different cell types such as blood, bone, tissue and organ cells.
There are also more than 80 conditions that can be treated using umbilical cord stem cells including leukaemia, cerebral palsy and thalassaemia. Your baby’s stem cells can also potentially match and treat their siblings or parents if required.
Based in Plymouth’s International Medical and Technology Park beside its partners at Derriford Teaching Hospital, Biovault has led the way in human tissue processing and storage since 2004. It provides provides both tissue and cellular processing and storage to the NHS and to strategic private partners around the world.
The tissue, primarily bone and tendons, is provided for the treatment of injuries in both NHS and private hospitals. The cellular therapies, including blood and marrow products, are provided both to the NHS to treat blood cancers and privately stored for individual use in the future.
Cord blood storage and processing can cost from £1,450 plus £60 a year storage, or a 25 year deal costs £1,950 or £2,950 for 50 years. Cord blood and tissue storage and processing is more expensive at £1,750 plus £90 a year, or £2,450 or £3,850 for 25 or 50 years storage.
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Biovault Family and its sister companies, including Biovault Technical, have labs packed with the latest future-proof cryogenic freezers, cleanrooms and laboratories – capable of storing tissues samples at temperatures as low as -196C.
Considering the lowest natural temperature recorded at ground level on Earth is -89.2C, it gives some idea of how cold the samples need to be to keep them viable for a 25-year storage life.
Stem cell storage began in the late 1990s and has become more popular as parents opt to store their newborns’ cells in case they are needed to treat diseases in later life.
Biovault can store up to a million samples at its Plymouth base. They are kept in large freezers, called eturnes, each with capacity for 4,500 samples.
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Ms Roe said: “We did it for Honor, who was born in the US, where it’s a more common thing to do. Touch wood you never need it, but if anything can help a future illness then in my opinion it’s so worth doing.
“I think every parent would put their child’s health above anything else in the world. Arming yourself with knowledge about cord blood banking could potentially be a very important part of that.”
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She added: “My initial phone consultation did make me laugh because she asked if I was moving house or renovating before the birth, to which I answered, ‘both’ and asked ‘why?’ Apparently these are a top two reasons to give birth early, so we will see.”
Kate Sneddon, Biovault Family chief executive, said: “We are delighted that Louise has chosen Biovault Family to bank her baby’s cord blood.
“The value of cord blood banking is well known in other parts of the world, but in the 海角视频 it is still relatively unknown. Louise is a brilliant influencer via her social media channels and it is really great that she wants to help us spread the word about cord blood banking, and its value today in treating a range of conditions.”