If you have any questions surrounding our services, our advice panel offers a plethora of information and aims to answer any frequently asked questions
It is though, highly likely that your sample will be perfectly safe and useable for a much longer period than this. At Future Health, we think it is more ethical to offer to store your sample for 25 years initially, but of course, we will contact you towards the end of this storage period to offer you the chance to extend it further.
At Future health, we specialise in multiple births and we offer special discounts for twins and triplets. Please call us to obtain a quote.
We welcome back all of our repeat clients with a special discount from the standard service price. Please call us for a quote!
When the company first opened its doors in 2002, we had already installed the most technologically-advanced laboratory at our headquarters in Nottingham, the heart of the UK. Being a company based on quality, we ensured that we had the most up-to-date facilities. The following ten years led to a great deal of success for Future Health Biobank, with our international expansion rapidly progressing we built our second laboratory in Switzerland. This new addition meant that we could serve our customers quicker whilst offering a location storage choice, something that no other stem cell bank could offer.
We are proud to be able to offer an array of storage temperatures; -20 degrees, -80 degrees, -196 degrees, liquid nitrogen and vapour phase nitrogen. This ensures that we can successfully store all samples at the required condition.
We are proud to be one of the longest running family banks in Europe as well as by far the largest stem cell bank in the UK. We have now processed and stored 200,000 stem cell samples from 90 countries around the world.
There have been over 40,000 lifesaving stem cell transplants, for 85 conditions, performed using these stem cells since 1988.
Cord tissue contains cells with marker characteristics consistent with populations shown to have therapeutic value which are currently being used in over 300 clinical trials around the world for regenerative medical purposes and the treatment of life altering conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cerebral palsy.
Each and every plan we offer is backed up by an insurance policy that will finance any actions that need to be taken.
All of our storage tanks are alarmed and monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and can run without electricity for up to 5 days if required. If any of our storage tanks needed to be moved off site, they would be sent to another HTA licensed facility just 4 miles away.
Should your child face any of a vast range of health issues in later life, stem cells may be the key to repairing and restoring their health.
Umbilical cord blood stem cells are already being used in the treatment of over 85 medical conditions including leukaemias, anaemias and thalassemias and the list is constantly growing. Cord blood stem cell collection is an incredibly simple process in which these unique cells are collected from the umbilical cord once the baby has been safely delivered.
Umbilical cord tissue cells can be collected at the same time as cord blood stem cells. This process simply involves taking a sample of the cord tissue and then processing and storing at our laboratory in Nottingham.
There is also a 25% chance that a cord blood sample belonging to one child will be a match for a sibling though.
It is highly likely that your sample will be perfectly safe and useable for a much longer period than this. At Future Health, we think it is more ethical to offer to store your sample for 25 years initially, but of course, we will contact you towards the end of this storage period to offer you the chance to extend it further.
We can process any sample, though we do set a stringent success criteria based on the number of stem cell within it. The sample must contain a minimum number of CD34+ stem cells in order for us to deem it successful and suitable for long term storage. If your cord blood sample does not meet this requirement, you will have the option to decline storage and we will not charge you anything further.
Your cord blood stem cells could then be used to treat someone else around the world. However, you will no longer have direct access to this precious sample. For more information you can visit NHSBT or the Anthony Nolan Trust websites.
Disorders of blood cell proliferation (Anaemia, platelet abnormalities and more)
Inherited immune system disorders (Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), Neutropenias and more)
Cancers (Leukaemia, Bone Marrow cancer and more)
Inherited Metabolic Disorders (Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) Storage Diseases, Leukodystrophy Disorders and more)
Inherited Disorders effecting the Immune System & Other Organs (Cartilage-Hair Hypoplasia, Gunther’s Disease)
Simply contact us on 7000 2229 or email info@futurehealth.com.cy and we will send you an information pack and an agreement to complete.
We will then send you a collection kit, allocate your health care professional for the collection (if required) and write to your hospital to inform them of your request to ensure everything runs smoothly on the day.
Once you have ordered your stem cell collection with our customer care team, we will post out a collection kit to your home. This kit needs to be kept safe, away from any radiators and ideally with your overnight maternity bag. A phlebotomist will be allocated to you and will be the person that collects your stem cells at the hospital. They will give you a courtesy call to introduce themselves.
Once you go into labour, simply take the kit to the hospital with you and let your phlebotomist know that you are on your way. Once your baby has been safely delivered, the phlebotomist will extract the cord blood. This is a very quick and non-invasive procedure and won’t interrupt your precious time with your baby. The phlebotomist will then securely package the stem cells into the provided collection kit.
Then all that is required is that yourself or your partner calls us to arrange collection of the kit. The sample is then delivered directly to our laboratory in Nottingham and will be processed and prepared for storage. Our customer care team will then be in touch will a follow-up call with the results and status of your sample.
When it arrives, simply keep it near your maternity bag and take it with you on the big day.
When the big day arrives you will need to call your OBGYN as soon as your labour starts and then keep them updated. When you go to hospital remember to take your collection kit.
Once your baby has been safely delivered, your assigned healthcare professional will collect your baby’s cord blood, cord tissue and the maternal bloods before placing them in the collection kit.
When the healthcare professional hands you back the collection kit, call us to arrange for the kit pickup on 7000 2229.
A healthcare professional will be required to collect your cord blood and tissue samples at the hospital.
All collection kits are designed to maintain room temperature (do not put them in a fridge or freezer) to keep the sample in optimum condition until it reaches our laboratory. All collection kits include a gel pack which ensures the sample maintains the required temperature during shipping.
Our laboratory is open for processing 6 days a week, 52 weeks a year, ensuring all samples are processed well within our regulatory guidelines, giving clients the best possible results.
During processing, each sample is condensed and split into multiple portions, meaning should you require your child stem cells in the future, only one segment needs to be used, leaving the rest intact for use in future treatments.
Each sample is processed individually by our highly experienced and qualified laboratory technician. We don’t use a fully automated system where multiple samples are processed simultaneously, as processing multiple samples at once could put your sample at risk of contamination.
We will NEVER send your samples to be stored by a third party, as we believe this can put your samples at unnecessary risk.
Each sample will be split into multiple portions within our specially designed double-wrapped casing before freezing, enabling your child’s sample to be used several times to treat life-threatening conditions, if required.
All of our storage tanks are individually alarmed and monitored 24/7, 365 days a year.
After arranging the consent papers with you, we will work with your doctor to arrange the safe delivery of your sample to the transplant facility on the given date and time.
We will not charge you for the release and transportation of your sample (anywhere in the world) if your family needs it for use in a treatment.
It is therefore standard practice to only collect the stem cells once the third stage of labour has been successfully completed and both you and baby are safe and comfortable.
Whether you opt for a natural delivery or caesarean section, managed or physiological third stage of labour, there should be no problem collecting your baby’s stem cells. For this reason, we do not recommend your birth plan is altered or compromised in any way.
Anything above this may start to impact on the amount of cord blood available, but we would always encourage you to follow your birth plan. We will simply collect what cord blood is available on the day and if after processing, the stem cell count does not meet our minimum storage criteria, you will not be charged anything further.
It is also worth noting, if you opt for a physiological third stage, we are still able to collect the cord tissue.
If you do move, please remember to let us know your new address and contact information so we can keep our records up to date.
Vision only involves a single blood draw from the mother and is therefore a much safer screening option than amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling.
Vision offers a safer screening option to invasive methods, making it possible for mothers to gain an insight into their child’s future health without potentially endangering them. Although Vision is a highly accurate screening test (99.79%), it is still possible for false positive and false negative results to occur and therefore invasive testing is recommended to confirm the results.
The first trimester Nuchal Translucency scan only determines the risk of a child developing Down’s syndrome and therefore does not detect whether or not there is an aneuploidy present. Vision tests for this chromosomal aneuploidy.
Our partner laboratory, Genesis Genetics, have genetic counsellors available to aid parents once they receive their Vision results; this can be deciding on the next steps or helping parents affected by the result itself.
The laboratory operates a 9-5, Monday to Friday service, with the exception of bank holidays and festive periods. Notifications of any closures or changes to the working day will be sent well in advance.
The laboratory has a cut off of 5 days. Anything received more than 5 days after the blood draw will not be processed and a re-draw will be required.
One of the limitations of the test is that it is not possible to show which twin the result relates to. In gender identification, a result that shows the Y chromosome has been detected means at least one of the babies is likely to be a male, however it is not possible to determine the individual gender of each baby. Clarification of these results can be obtained from routine ultrasound scans offered later in a pregnancy, as they will also attempt to identify the gender of the babies.
This should not be necessary except in extreme temperatures. Generally the sample should not be exposed to any extreme temperatures because overheating and freezing can both cause haemolysis of the blood. In warmer months or territories, it could be beneficial to use a cool pack, as long as it is not in direct contact with the sample.
No, the blood should be kept at ambient temperature, however it is still important to ensure the blood doesn’t get too hot in the summer months, so a well ventilated area is advised. The laboratory we use stores the samples at 22°C until processing, so we would recommend a similar temperature.
Our test is not constrained by ethnicity, BMI, ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) or paternal sample.
