Cells for Life

Public: Public & Family
AABB: Family

About

Bank Director: Elisabeth Semple, PhD

Cells for Life is one of the oldest and largest family cord blood banks in Canada, since 1997. Victoria Angel Registry of Hope (VAR) is a public banking program that is operated by Cells for Life under a  charitable foundation since 2005. VAR accepts cord blood donations from 34 hospitals in southern Ontario (as of Oct. 2014).

Victoria Angel Registry of Hope is named after a girl Victoria Angel whose cord blood cured her mother of leukemia. Cord blood donations collected by VAR are processed and stored at the Cells for Life laboratory at Toronto General Hospital. Since 2005, VAR has screened thousands of interested parents, trained collection personnel, and has a storage rate of 25-30% of donations. VAR is currently applying to list their collections on an international registry.

Mail-in Donations

Victoria Angel Registry of Hope (VAR) is a public banking program operated by Cells for Life that accepts cord blood donations from 34 hospitals in southern Ontario.