29 May 2012 Last updated at 06:31 ET
An umbilical cord donor centre which will harvest stems cells to treat people with leukaemia is being set up at a Birmingham hospital.
The Anthony Nolan charity will run the centre at Birmingham Women's Hospital.
The charity said it had already recruited a supervising midwife for the centre and that the collectors would be in place within a month.
The centre, the first of its kind in the West Midlands, is expected to open in September.
Guy Parkes, from the Anthony Nolan charity, said a collection unit at a hospital cost more than 200,000 a year to run.
He said: "Instead of being incinerated, which is what usually happens, the cord is passed to one of our collectors who extracts the blood and that is sent to our centre in Nottingham where the stem cells are extracted."
The harvested stem cells have to be frozen to minus 180C for storage.
One in every 100 umbilical cords saved will be used to transplant stem cells, according to Mr Parkes.
A Worcestershire mother is raising money for the centre, after her son, who has leukaemia, was treated with stem cells from the US.
Excerpt from:
Umbilical cord donor unit to open