[baps]

Sir Richard Branson has announced the launch of a new Virgin banking service - storing stem cells from newborn babies' umbilical cords.
The cells, collected from cord blood and deep frozen in a laboratory, can provide lifesaving transplant treatments for blood cancers and immune disorders.
Future developments in tissue regeneration technology may also find new uses for an individual's stored cord blood stem cells. Virgin Health Bank, a radical new departure for Sir Richard's business empire, will provide a dual private and public service.
Each stored sample will be divided and placed in two banks, one for the customer's personal use and the other to make donated cells freely available to anyone who needs them.
Parents will be asked to pay £1,500 to collect their child's umbilical cord blood stem cells. In return they will have a store of cord stem cells as an insurance policy that might benefit their child in the future.
They will also have free access to tissue-matched stem cells that have been banked by other parents and may provide lifesaving treatment for their child. A child with blood cancer cannot be treated with its own cord stem cells.
Sir Richard said all the profits he makes from the £10 million venture will go to charities involved in realising the potential of cord blood stem cells. However, City investors who put up half the money will be entitled to a return.
Speaking at the launch at the British Medical Association headquarters in London, Sir Richard said: "I believe that Virgin Health Bank has an important role to play in making more of these special cells available to those who need them today and in the future.
"Although cord blood collections in many areas of the world is now common practice, in the UK there is still a misunderstanding of the different types of stem cells. We are dealing with adults themselves, those taken from umbilical cord blood, which is normally discarded after a child is born. Using these cells as treatments presents no ethical issues and the benefit for patients today are widely accepted."
He said he believed the dual private/public approach to storing cord blood stem cells was unique in the world.