Kellie Shirley, known for her portrayal of Carly Wicks in the BBC soap, is to donate her twins’ cord blood.  The actress, 32, is to donate cord blood to the Anthony Nolan stem cell register.  The donation could go on to help cancer patients in need of a stem cell transplant.

Speaking to the Daily Record, Kelly says how she was inspired to donate her twins’ cord blood after attending a talk by Miriam González Durántez, Nick Clegg’s wife.  “She said the most beautiful, passionate things about donating cord blood and it really affected me. I knew straight away that if I ever had a baby, I wanted to donate my cord blood” says Kellie.

Kellie has chosen to give birth at King’s College Hospital, the only NHS hospital in London which accepts cord blood donations to Anthony Nolan’s stem cell register.  She says choosing to donate to Anthony Nolan “was an easy decision as I’ve supported the charity since I ran the London Marathon for them in 2008.”

Her passion for Anthony Nolan is evident, “Someone is diagnosed with blood cancer every 20 minutes. Some of those patients will be lucky enough to have a sibling with a matching tissue type who can donate bone marrow to them. If they don’t, they will have to rely on a transplant from a complete stranger.  But that can only happen if there is a matching donor on the bone marrow register, like the one run by Anthony Nolan.”

Donating The Twins’ Cord Blood Is Easy…

Kellie stresses how simple donating her twins’ cord blood will be “After I give birth, a specially trained midwife will come into the delivery room and collect the cord and placenta.  And that’s it.  It won’t cost me anything or hurt me or my babies.”

From there the twins’ cord blood will be taken to Nottingham where it will be processed and stored, waiting to be used for someone in need.

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