I am Peter Hodes,a volunteer stem cell courier. Since March 2012, I’ve done 89 trips—of those, 51 have been abroad. I have 42 hours to carry stem cells in my little box because I’ve got two ice packs and that’s how long they last. In all, from the time the stem cells are harvested from a donor to the time they can be implanted in the patient, we’ve got 72 hours at most. So I am always conscious of time.
我是彼得·霍德斯，一名干细胞快递志愿者。2012年3月以来，我已经完成89次快递，其中境外51次。我的小盒子可以携带干细胞42小时，因为我有两个冰袋，这是它们所能维持的时间。总之，从捐献者提供干细胞开始到植入患者体内，我们最多只有72小时。所以我时刻保持时间意识。
I had one trip last year where I was caught by a hurricane in America. I picked up the stem cells in Providence, Rhode Island, and was meant to fly to Washington then back to London. But when I arrived at the check-in desk at Providence, the lady on the desk said: “Well, I’m really sorry, I’ve got some bad news for you—there are no flights from Washington.” So I took my box and put it on the desk and I said:“In this box are some stem cells that are urgently needed for a patient—please, please, you’ve got to get me back to the United Kingdom.” She just dropped everything. She arranged for a flight on a small plane to be held for me, re-routed me through Newark and got me back to the UK even earlier than originally scheduled.
去年我有一次在美国遭遇飓风。我在罗得岛州的普罗维登斯接收干细胞，本来打算飞往华盛顿，然后再飞回伦敦。但是当我到达普罗维登斯的登记台时，登记台的女士说：“我很抱歉，我有个坏消息要告诉你，现在没有从华盛顿起飞的航班”。我只好拿着我的盒子放在登记台上，说：“盒子里有病人急需的干细胞，请你必须让我回到英国。”她立即放下手头的所有工作，为我安排了一架小型飞机的座位，改道纽瓦克返回英国，这比原计划还早。
For this courier job, you’re consciously aware that in that box you’ve got something that is potentially going to save somebody’s life.
对于这份快递员的工作，你会意识到，这个盒子可能会挽救某人的生命。
