"Charlie's army" back life-saving petition (From Worcester News)

"Charlie's army" back life-saving petition

10:48am Monday 11th February 2013 in News By James Connell

A BABY who lost his brave fight against leukaemia continues to inspire people to sign an e-petition which could save others like him.

The e-petition to improve availability of life-saving umbilical cord donations has already been signed by 18,000 people, many inspired by the courage of two-year-old Charlie-Harris Beard of Kidderminster who died on Friday.

The petition is for it to become compulsory for every pregnant woman in the UK to be informed about cord blood banking and for the government to invest in training midwives to harvest the cord blood so at least one trained midwife is available in every major hospital around the clock. The petition also calls for temporary storage facilities to be available in every major hospital while it can be transferred to a regional centre. To support the petition visit epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/45622