Baseball Superstar Alex Rodriguez, 'A-Rod,' Joins the Team at CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank to Help Save Lives

    ORLANDO, Fla., May 22 /PRNewswire/ -- CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank is proud
 to announce that Alex Rodriguez, "A-Rod" to his New York Yankees teammates
 and fans around the world, has joined its team.
     "We are honored to have this baseball superstar and, more importantly,
 such an outstanding human being on our team," says Dr. Edward Guindi,
 President and CEO of CORD:USE. A-Rod joins CORD:USE as a spokesperson to
 lead its "Cord Blood Saves Lives ... It's a Homerun!" campaign.
     "I look forward to being able to help increase awareness of the
 benefits of umbilical cord blood donation and cord blood stem cell
 treatments for people in need," Rodriguez, a nine-time All-Star, says.
     A-Rod joins CORD:USE spokesman Julius "Dr. J." Erving, who has been a
 passionate spokesman in Washington and throughout the nation promoting cord
 blood donation from minorities, who are underrepresented in the current
 bone marrow and cord blood registries.
     "I am delighted to join the world-class team at CORD:USE. They've got
 some terrific leaders in the field of cord blood stem cell banking and
 transplantation, and we'll all be working together to help save lives,"
 says Rodriguez, who is leading the Major Leagues in homeruns this season.
 "That's a 'homerun' that's as important to me as anything I'll ever do in a
 ballpark."
     Cord blood stem cells have already been used to treat over 9,000
 patients, saving thousands of people who would have otherwise had no chance
 of survival. Currently, more than 70 different diseases have been
 successfully treated utilizing cord blood stem cells.
     About CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank
     The CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank, headquartered in Orlando, Fla., is
 creating a large, ethnically diverse, high-quality inventory of available
 cord blood stem cell units for the many patients in need of a potentially
 life-saving transplant. The Company's operations consist of the collection,
 processing, storage and subsequent delivery of stem cells found in
 umbilical cord blood for use in patients with life-threatening illnesses.
 CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank has entered into agreements with hospitals around
 the nation to provide mothers the opportunity to donate their babies' cord
 blood to a bank which will make these cord blood units available to serve
 the substantially increasing cord blood utilization demand. CORD:USE lists
 all of its units on the National Marrow Donor Program's Registry. For more
 information, visit http://www.corduse.com.
 
 

SOURCE CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank