Our History
Who we were:
Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital was the first hospital to perform an adult bone marrow transplant (BMT) in Australia. The inaugural meeting of Arrow was in 1987, with the founding members including patients and family members, nurses, and staff associated with St Vincent’s.
One of our early milestones was the creation and funding of the Australasian Bone Marrow Transplant Recipient Registry (ABMTRR). The ABMTRR collects, collates, and distributes transplant patient data across Australia and New Zealand, and is a vital reference source for hospitals, clinicians and researchers.
Who we are now:
Since then, our work has expanded to include the support of all people needing a bone marrow transplant, as well as nurses, healthcare professionals, and medical researchers working in the transplant field.
Who we hope to be:
Our ultimate aim is to help fund research that will one day make bone marrow transplants a thing of the past. Until then, we exist to fulfill our mission: to improve the quality of life for patients with blood cancers and other diseases treatable by bone marrow and stem cell transplants.