ONE year ago, Pan Qingwei, owner of a Shenzhen-based design company, suspended his booming business and made his third trip to Tibet.

Different from his last two trips as a tourist, this time he served as a volunteer for China’s stem cell donor data bank for three months. Joining him was another young Shenzhen man named Huang Kai, who quit his job for the mission.

The two were selected by the bank for their extraordinary experience in voluntary work.

Pan was the first stem cell donor in Shenzhen. In 2001, he donated his stem cell to a leukemia patient.

Half a year after the donation, he found he was healthy enough to donate blood, so he did it and became China’s first stem cell donor giving blood after a stem cell donation.

Pan and his wife were awarded national gold prizes for blood donation.

Huang is also an avid blood donor who has donated more than 20,000 milliliters of blood. He is also a five-star volunteer with more than 5,000 hours of community service.

Their mission was to set up a Tibetan sub-branch for the national stem cell bank to facilitate the donation, matching and use of stem cells for people living in the region.

The establishment of the sub-branch would mean every province, autonomous region and municipality in China had its own stem cell data bank.

Starting from an empty house, the two began designing the office, buying facilities, setting up a database, training employees and promoting stem cell donations among local residents.

They held many promotional activities in colleges, hospitals and government departments. Pan even persuaded his friends in Shenzhen and Hong Kong to drive from Gansu to Lhasa and promote of stem cell donation along the way.

Their actions moved many Lhasa residents who joined them to encourage more people to donate stem cells.

After three months, the two men finished their work, leaving behind a stem cell data bank and a list of 140 stem cell donors.

Their work was highly praised by the people of the autonomous region who saw the establishment of the bank as a sign of hope blood disease patients in Tibet.

“They are men of nobility,” remarked Guo Changjiang, deputy director of the China Red Cross Association.

(Wu Tong)