Category: Patient Stories
100 years of life What does 100 years of life look like after a bone marrow transplant? It looks like Lisa, Jonathon, and Kerrin — three extraordinary Australians who’ve not only survived bone marrow transplants, but have gone on to…
Jenny Nixon is no slouch. She’s a mother to two sets of twins, who she raised as a single mum from when they were six and three years old, and is a proud grandmother to four. She runs her own…
Poppy Pickett has had more than a lifetime’s worth of medical poking and prodding, with transfusion after transfusion, endless visits to hospitals and specialists, and months in isolation. And she’s only five years old. Poppy was diagnosed with Diamond-Blackfan Anaemia…
Thursday 7th November 2002 is a day Serina Dosen will never forget. It’s the day she received her new stem cells, and a second chance at life. But it’s also the day she began her “new normal” life, with a…
Meagan Clark* is a university lecturer, married, with two kids – all the usual stuff – and considers herself incredibly privileged. But despite her apparent advantages in life, she still struggled with the blows dealt to her and her family…
GATA2. It sounds like something from a SciFi movie, doesn’t it? Perhaps the name of a newly colonised planet, or a space station or something. But no. It’s a protein that regulates gene expression and it plays a key role…
You don’t expect to have to wear nappies and learn to walk again when you’ve been successfully adulting for decades. And you don’t expect to follow that up with having to watch your 19-year-old learn to walk again either. But…
Katherine Robertson, pictured in 1999, not long before her diagnosis with acute lymphocytic leukaemia. Anne Robertson Anne Robertson was a refined lady, always impeccably presented, with a love for history and family. Anne had a love of the arts enjoying…
Courtney Hughes’ pathway to her nursing career is not your average one, but then Courtney probably isn’t your average kind of girl. Courtney was leading an active life, busy working as a prison officer doing lots of physically demanding work…
“My bone marrow transplant was the worst and the best time of my life.” That’s how Jordan Lambropoulos describes her ground-breaking stem cell transplant now that she has another year of living under her belt. Bone marrow or stem cell…
Meet Sam Sheehan, an Aussie living and working in Vietnam with his partner. Sam, with his ever-positive outlook on life, put a lot of his seemingly innocent health woes down to travel bugs and a difference in health care systems,…
Arrow’s newsletter, “Transplant Talk” is going live. Join us for a series of patient webinars with expert guests covering topics such as returning to work after bone marrow/stem cell transplant, survivorship, dealing with graft v. host disease, and much more….
A woman with a cat bite walks into a medical centre… No, it’s not the start of a bad joke, but what followed for Jackie was so surreal it felt like it could have been. She had been feeling fatigued…
“How are you doing today?” It’s an innocuous question for most of us, something we ask often without really listening to the answer. But hardship can happen to anyone. “I’ll tell you on Tuesday,” was the answer I got when…
“Today of all days, Jen.” It had taken quite a bit of to-and-fro to arrange a time to speak with Des. He’s a busy man: playing golf, catching up with friends, enjoying concerts, and back in full time work after…
Unless you’ve been through it, you probably don’t really understand the impact losing hair can have on a cancer patient. Losing your hair is a visible sign of illness and can trigger all sorts of unwanted responses from well- meaning…
Of all the hardships that cancer patients endure, losing their hair is often the thing that people tell us is one of the hardest to take. It’s such a visible manifestation of the treatment they’re going through, and it screams…
Making a splash 38-years post bone marrow transplantation Camaraderie, commitment and courage are three words that come to Lisa Cuthbertson’s mind when she talks about the World Transplant Games, recently held in Perth, Western Australia, 15-21 April 2023. “Camaraderie…
Lismore is doing it tough. First the COVID pandemic, and then the devastating floods just over a year ago now, the effects of which are continuing to be felt throughout the community. During these difficult times, people of Lismore and…
Robyn (Robbie) Canner was a single mum with little support around her when her son Scott was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. “It was a tough time,” Robbie says. “Everything happens so fast with this disease. We got the diagnosis, Scott…