EVEN before Singapore's public cord blood bank has opened its doors, mothers-to-be have been offering to donate samples of their babies' umbilical cord blood.

'It's an altruistic gift, and people seem very willing to donate the cord blood which otherwise they would discard,' said Dr Fidah Alsagoff, executive director of the Singapore Cord Blood Bank, which starts collecting and freeze-storing cord blood by year end.

The bank will be the first internationally accredited one in the region, and will also cater to patients outside of Singapore.

It is an initiative of SingHealth, together with the National HealthCare Group, the Children's Cancer Foundation and Club Rainbow, which provides support to families of children suffering from major chronic and life-threatening diseases.

The lab at KK Women's and Children's Hospital, where the samples are to be stored, is being renovated. The hospital sees about 15,000 births a year or about four in 10 births here.

The bank plans to build up a registry which will help up to 100 Singapore patients a year suffering from blood disorders - in particular, leukaemia. It aims to have about 1,000 units of cord blood in the first six months, said Dr Alsagoff. The only cost to the donor is that the family has no claim to the blood. If the child needs cord blood later because of illness, there is no guarantee he will get back his sample because it may have been given away. But he will get priority if a match can be found.