Five leading pioneers of China's marrow donors gathered in Beijing on Monday to gain momentum for the Chinese Marrow Donor Program.

Besides sharing some of their life-saving stories, they also called on more people to help and expand China's marrow bank so that more leukemia patients can be saved.

Pan Qingwei is one of the five pioneer donors. He has been helping with the building of a branch marrow bank in Tibet.

"Since April of 2007, with the Help of the CMDP and the Red Cross Tibetan branch, we conquered many difficulties brought about by the high altitude and the backward environment. We started from nothing and gradually built the branch into a fully operational center. What we did has brought much hope for Tibetan leukemia patients."

Su Juxiang, vice director of the Red Cross Society of China, says the the program has the third biggest marrow bank in the world, but it is far from enough to satisfy the actual needs.

"So far, we still need to expand the marrow bank and strive to promote such program across China. The RCSC has set its goal to reach 1 million data samples for patients. To reach such a goal, we need concerted efforts from all sides. We hope that more healthy young people can do their part for the program."

Leukemia is a cancer of the blood, or bone marrow. It is characterized by an abnormal proliferation of blood cells.

Allergenic bone marrow transplantation is one the effective treatments for high-risk or relapsed leukemia patients.