China's NBA star Yao Ming has joined university basketball players to encourage hemopoietic stem cell donation in China.

The Houston Rockets center attended an event Sunday to promote awareness of bone marrow transplantation among college students. Yao Ming also donated his blood sample for China's hemopoietic stem cell bank during the event.

Hemopoietic stem cell transplantation is the only known effective treatment of leukemia. China now has more than one million leukemia patients await transplant. The Hematopoietic Stem Cell Donor Programme Administration Centre, with over 290,000 samples stored, is expecting more people to join the donation drive.