Mother has second baby in bid to save elder daughter from leukaemia - PHOTO

A Chinese woman has given birth to a second child in an effort to save her elder daughter who suffers from leukaemia. Baby boy Bei Bei was born at 7pm on May 31st and came into the world with one mission: to save his three-year-old sister Pan Jing. Mother Zhao Linjun and father Pan Qilong decided to try for a second child after Jing fell ill with acute leukaemia early last year.After doctors told her parents that a newborn's cord blood could be used to treat their daughter the couple made the decision have another child. During her pregnancy, both Zhao Linjun and Jing attended the same hospital in Changji, northwest China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Following Bei Bei's birth the hospital have said that the cord blood treatment will cost around half a million Yuan (£50,000), leaving the family with a desperate battle to raise the required funds.'I must save my daughter,' said Pan Qilong, who is now desperately borrowing money.It is not the first time a couple has decided to have another baby to save the life of another.In September last year, Rob and Cindy Harris, underwent IVF in a bid to have a second child to save their nine-month-old son, Ryven, from Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (WAS) - a rare, inherited condition that weakens the body's immune system.Doctors will also have to extract the Harris newborn's chord blood, which will eventually lead to a bone marrow transplant, an operation that can prove both painful and risky.Even if the IVF process works, using the cord blood for the bone marrow transplant has complications of its own with Mrs Harris saying it was a tricky and dangerous procedure where 'horrible things can happen'.Cord blood is blood taken from a baby's umbilical cord and contains embryonic stem cells. They can be made into more specialised cells and can reproduce copies of themselves almost indefinitely.There is currently research into a host of applications – from growing new organs to curing paraplegia. In theory, stem cells treat disease by replacing damaged or diseased cells. They are used in bone-marrow transplants to treat leukaemia – but in these cases, donor blood taken in the usual way is used to harvest the stem cells.(dailymail.co.uk)Bakudaily.az