Thank you, Madam Chair.
During the last two years, the OneMatch stem cell and marrow network has really focused on establishing partnerships with leaders in diverse communities, and we have had a huge success in educating leaders and getting them then to engage their community on the need to support patients within the community. We have partnerships with our Asian community. The OtherHalf Chinese stem cell awareness initiative in Toronto is one such group that actively recruits donors of Asian heritage to the network, and we have seen unprecedented registration through that community. Last year alone, in a one-day event, that committee registered 4,025 new donors. Most of them were ethnic--I'd say 99%--and the majority of them were under the age of 30. The younger the donor, the happier the stem cells, the better the outcome for the patient.
We have such partnerships with groups in the South Asian community in both Toronto and in British Columbia. We have groups in the Latin American community as well, and we have found that that has been a very good template to use in engaging communities where we need to encourage donors to join.