Source: Southern Plus

Reporter: MA Limin

Date: Dec 7, 2023

Translator: MENG Yangxiangqi

If everything goes well, her blood type will become the same as mine, and a stranger will bleed the same ‘blood’ as me in the future, said Huang Xu, a graduate student in the School of Intelligent Systems Science and Engineering/JNU-Industry School of Artificial Intelligence on the Zhuhai campus. Huang has successfully donated hematopoietic stem cells – cells that create different blood cells essential for oxygen transport, defense against infection and blood clotting – at the Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University, bringing hope for the life of a 2-year-old girl suffering from a serious blood disease.

Huang Xu during hospitalization

Huang is enthusiastic about life and public welfare. Entering Jinan University in 2018, he was influenced by the university's popularization of blood donation and donated for the first time. The next year, he learned the importance of hematopoietic stem cells to patients with blood diseases and joined the China Marrow Donor Program.

In late June, after receiving a phone call from the Red Cross staff in Zhuhai seeking blood stem cell donations, Huang immediately agreed to donate..

Huang with his mother

Shortly before starting his postgraduate studies, Huang completed the high-resolution matching blood sample collection and pre-donation physical examination in Foshan. After more than two months of preparation, he went to Southern Medical University's Zhujiang Hospital and received injections of mobilization agents for five days.

On the day of the donation, Huang successfully contributed 202 milliliters of hematopoietic stem cell suspension after a four-hour procedure – the first such donation from a current student on JNU's Zhuhai campus.

I once happened to pass by an elementary school just as the pupils were finishing school, he said. Many parents were eagerly looking for their children. At that time, I thought, 'In a few years, this little girl will probably be able to carry a small school bag and look for her parents to pick her up from school with a smile on her face.' Huang Xu is looking forward to that day.