Student makes 2nd stem cell donation to help Belgian patient

A 21-year-old university student from eastern China's Jiangxi Province has twice donated her stem cells to save a patient in Belgium.

A 21-year-old university student from East China's Jiangxi Province has twice donated her stem cells to save a patient in Belgium.

In February, Jiang Minlin, a student in Shangrao Normal Institute of Jiangxi, donated 227 millimeters of hemopoietic stem cells to a patient with a blood disease in Belgium, whose human leukocyte antigen type matched Jiang's.

On August 8, Jiang donated another 65 millimeters of lymphocyte cells to the same patient to help her fight rejection of the initial cells.

Both donations were made at a hospital in Beijing.

Jiang signed up to be a stem cell donor with the China Marrow Donor Program in 2014. Her stem cells were found to match the Belgian patient's last December.

The likelihood of stem cells matching is extremely low — somewhere between 0.01 percent and 0.25 percent .

"The donation staff told me that the recipient is about the age of my mother. I'm really happy to help save a life," she said.