Lois Hole celebrates 10 years as cord blood collection site

January 30, 2025

Celia Lau tells everyone she meets who is pregnant to consider donating their cord blood. At just 21 days old, her son Justin, seen here in a childhood photo, received a life-saving cord blood stem cell transplant thanks to the gift of life from an anonymous donor family. Today he’s a healthy 17-year-old.

Celia Lau tells everyone she meets who is pregnant to consider donating their cord blood. At just 21 days old, her son Justin, seen here in a childhood photo, received a life-saving cord blood stem cell transplant thanks to the gift of life from an anonymous donor family. Today he’s a healthy 17-year-old. Supplied.

Tracee Pratt, left, executive director, Women's Health, Lois Hole Hospital for Women, and Kathy Ganz, director, Stem Cells, at Canadian Blood Services, help mark 10 years of banking the gift of cord blood at the Royal Alexandra Hospital’s Lois Hole Hospital for Women.

Tracee Pratt, left, executive director, Women's Health, Lois Hole Hospital for Women, and Kathy Ganz, director, Stem Cells, at Canadian Blood Services, help mark 10 years of banking the gift of cord blood at the Royal Alexandra Hospital’s Lois Hole Hospital for Women. Photo by Sharman Hnatiuk.

Kelsey Koch, a labour and delivery nurse at the Lois Hole Hospital for Women, donated her son’s cord blood in 2016. His donation is one of the 27 Canadian Blood Services banked cord blood donations that have been used for a life-changing stem cell transplant internationally.

Kelsey Koch, a labour and delivery nurse at the Lois Hole Hospital for Women, donated her son’s cord blood in 2016. His donation is one of the 27 Canadian Blood Services banked cord blood donations that have been used for a life-changing stem cell transplant internationally. Photo by Sharman Hnatiuk.

‘Gift of life’ can treat more than 80 diseases and disorders

Story & photos by Sharman Hnatiuk

EDMONTON — Nearly 9,000 units of cord blood have been collected by Canadian Blood Services (CBS) at the Royal Alexandra Hospital’s Lois Hole Hospital for Women (LHHW) in the past decade.

To date, 889 cord blood collections from the Lois Hole have been banked with CBS. Edmonton now holds the record for the highest cord blood stem cell transplant rate among the four Canadian sites with 27 transplants being performed.

One of the transplants involved a cord blood collection that came from Kelsey Koch, a labour and delivery nurse who works on the unit.

Koch has long shared the simplicity and the potential of the CBS cord blood donation process at the LHHW with expectant mothers. She donated her son’s blood cord blood when he was born in 2016. Four years later, CBS gave her a certificate acknowledging that the donation had been used.

“Knowing my son’s cord blood may have been the gift of life for another family feels like a gift in return,” says Koch. “He truly is a little superhero.”

Across Canada, 1,000 patients are waiting for a stem cell transplant at any moment. This transplant can treat over 80 diseases and disorders, including leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia and sickle cell disease.

Less than a year after the loss of her firstborn son to a rare disorder, Celia Lau of Burnaby, B.C., found out at 14 weeks gestation that her fetus carried the same genetic disorder.

X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is a genetic immune system disorder. Children with SCID are prone to recurrent and persistent infections as they lack the immune cells necessary to fight off certain bacteria and viruses.

Celia and her husband Marcus were heartbroken. Six weeks later, doctors confirmed they had found a donor cord blood stem cell match for their fetus.

Baby Justin made a scheduled arrival by cesarean section at B.C. Women’s Hospital at 38 weeks. He started intensive chemotherapy at 10 days old to prepare his body for a stem cell transplant, that would occur 11 days later.

Justin spent the first 67 days of his life in the hospital. By his first birthday, he was off medication after the stem cell transplant that cured his genetic disorder. Today, Justin is a happy and healthy 17-year-old.

“Without the generosity of the family who donated their child’s cord blood, Justin would not be alive today,” says Lau. “Their gift has been such a blessing to our family. I tell everyone I meet who is pregnant to consider donating their cord blood.”


Typically, cord blood would be discarded as medical waste. By collecting it, cord blood becomes a valuable resource for transplant and research.

CBS’ Cord Blood Bank has been in operation since September 2013 when it launched in Ottawa. Collections started in Brampton in July of the following year, and then in Vancouver and Edmonton in January 2015. CBS’ Cord Blood Bank is a free service, providing cord blood stem cells available for anyone in Canada and around the world.