Mr. Speaker, in Canada today, nearly 1,000 patients are in need of life-saving stem cell transplants.
Less than a quarter of those who are sick find a suitable donor in their family. The others count on unrelated volunteer donors to save their lives. Patients are more likely to find a suitable donor within their own ethnic group.
That is why it is so important that our stem cell registry become as diverse as our country.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, November 1, Canadian Blood Services will host the Hope on the Hill event from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., where parliamentarians, staff and the health community will have the opportunity to join the Stem Cell Registry in person. For who cannot make it, I encourage them to visit blood.ca to discover how they can join the Stem Cell Registry and save lives.