Anne Maniar collected and banked blood from her son Darius as "an insurance policy" when he was born 16 months ago.
There was no family history of illness driving her to bank the blood, which contains stem cells that might be useful later for medical therapy, but it had been on her mind since she saw a documentary about cord blood when she was expecting her daughter four years ago.
The obstetrician used a kit the Maniars had bought to collect the blood sample from Darius's umbilical cord in a procedure that lasted a few minutes, then her husband packed up the sample and had it shipped to a storage facility.
The process cost them €1,300, but she looks on that as less than the price of a cup of coffee each week over the 20 years of storage. "I'm delighted to have done it and I really do think it's a great way forward," she says.