Category: Patient Stories

Losing your hair is one of the most common worries for people facing chemotherapy treatment. The Tracey Scone Wig Library has been a long time support for chemotherapy patients, but the lock-downs during the worst of the COVID pandemic saw us unable to help in this way. Yesterday Richelle stopped into the offices of Look […]

Arrow has donated a cannula machine to St Vincent’s Hospital to reduce the stress and anxiety of receiving a cannulation. This new ultrasound machine helps nurses find a patient’s vein and get the intravenous cannula in on the first go.  Donor Greg Bugden was very supportive of the purchase of the machine in memory of […]

Patients at St Vincent’s Hospital will enjoy greater comfort thanks to Arrow’s donation of a brand new tender loving chair. This specialised care chair for patients on the haematology and bone marrow transplant (BMT) ward has electronically adjustable height, back and leg rests. A welcome addition to the ward, the chair is a great improvement […]

Sophie and Hailey are identical twins and the best of friends. Both diagnosed with an inherited immune deficiency at three years of age, the girls have faced significant health challenges throughout their nine years of life. The biggest challenge of all has been their recent separation from each other whilst each undergoing a bone marrow […]

The inaugural meeting of what was then known as the Australian Bone Marrow Transplant Foundation (ABMTF) was held on 25 February 1987. Some 35 years later, we talk to one of Arrow’s founding members Barrie Beck, who underwent a bone marrow transplant at St Vincent’s Hospital in 1985 at the age of 39 for acute […]

Each year in Australia approximately 150 children under the age of 16 receive a haematopoietic stem cell transplant. Receiving treatment at one of the specialist Children’s Hospitals across the country, the families of these children face significant financial and logistical challenges. Arrow aims to help these families through our patient support program offering accommodation, travel, […]

Arrow’s Tracey Scone Wig Library was established in 2000 and has helped hundreds of patients who have suffered hair loss due to chemotherapy. The loan of a wig has provided patients with a much needed boost to their confidence and self esteem. As with many programs this year, the Tracey Scone Wig Library was impacted […]

“Care, warmth, and love” are three words that come to mind when young bone marrow transplant recipient Frank Li (pictured left) describes the sponsorship of Arrow’s grocery card initiative by Independent Grocers of Australia (IGA). And that is exactly what IGA is all about – taking care of locals. With a network of 1,400 independently […]

For patients undergoing bone marrow transplants the costs associated with travel can be significant. Rosemary, a social worker on the frontline with patients, explains that “by the time they (patients) get to having a transplant, after a lengthy and usually complex medical history, they have already incurred significant additional travel costs in addition to other […]

For most patents, hair loss associated with chemotherapy is only temporary. Carolyn Jenkins is one of the few who lives with permanent hair loss as a side-effect of her treatment. When her friend recommended that she visit the Tracey Scone Wig Library, she hadn’t expected to find such a wide of colours and styles that […]

After successfully undergoing two bone marrow transplants for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) in 2003, Arrow Director Colleena Presnell has spent over a decade supporting patients with a Gift of Friendship. Colleena shares her inspirational story with John McNamee in Go55s.    

Sarah Clarke was just 23 years old when diagnosed with grade 3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1988. Diagnosed with Myelodysplasia just over a decade later, Sarah underwent a stem cell transplant at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, in 1999. Following her own transplant, Sarah encouraged her husband and carer, Michael, to register as a bone marrow donor […]