Why does a charity invest in sending nurses and allied health professionals and researchers to conferences, especially international conferences like the 51st EBMT (formerly the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation) Scientific Meeting, recently held in Florence?

Because it matters, and because it makes a difference.

By sending a healthcare professional to a conference, you’re not just training one person. The people we help send to conferences have opportunities to meet with and learn from experts from around the world. They come back re-invigorated and inspired, and they share their new knowledge with their teams. So for every single healthcare professional you sponsor, you’re actually benefiting their whole hospital, and the hundreds of patients they care for.

This year, we were proud to support three exceptional professionals to attend the 2025 EBMT Conference:

• Maddie Gilsenan, Nurse Practitioner at The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne
• Laura McMahon, Clinical Nurse Educator at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney
• Malini Visweswaran, Post Doctoral Researcher at St Vincent’s Centre for Applied Medical Research

Each of them made the most of this opportunity in their own unique way. Here are their stories.

Maddie Gilsenan

Maddie presented at the conference on her role as Australia’s first paediatric Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) and Cellular Therapy (CT) Nurse Practitioner with the goal of inspiring international healthcare leaders to embed similar roles within their services – and she did just that.

Maddie says, “I feel especially privileged to share my poster at EBMT and engage in many meaningful discussions around the implementation of the first BMT and CT Nurse Practitioner role in Australia. I was delighted to hear of nursing colleagues who are now thinking of pursuing a Nurse Practitioner career pathway and have shared their contact details so we can continue these fruitful discussions.”

Not only did Maddie inspire her colleagues around the world to follow her lead, but she has also had the chance to meet like-minded Nurse Practitioners from overseas. This has been particularly valuable for Maddie, as there are currently no other paediatric Nurse Practitioners in Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy in Australia.

One such connection has led to an exciting opportunity with the team at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London. This hospital, or GOSH as it is known for short, is one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals in bone marrow failure syndromes. Now, thanks to the connections Maddie has formed at the EBMT conference, she has been invited to do a site visit at GOSH and may collaborate on an exciting new nurse-led research project. This is especially useful, given the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne where Maddie works, is currently developing a dedicated paediatric bone marrow failure clinical service. We can’t wait to hear more on that!

Since returning from the conference, Maddie has ensured that the knowledge gained from the conference has been shared with her team. She has presented to the nursing group at her hospital and will also be speaking at the upcoming national Transplant and Cellular Therapy in Children (TACTIC) meeting next month.

We are incredibly proud to have supported Maddie in attending the EBMT conference. She is a proactive and committed health care professional, dedicated to her ongoing development as well as that of her colleagues.

Maddie says “I am deeply grateful to the Arrow Foundation for this inspiring opportunity and remain committed to improving care for patients undergoing treatments for haematological conditions and their families.”

Laura McMahon

Laura was especially keen to attend the EBMT conference due to the large number of nurses attending the conference and the specialised nursing sessions available.

Laura found the conference “relevant, engaging, and provided in a supportive environment,” and added that the presenters were “inspiring showing an unwavering passion.”

For Laura, listening to these sessions gave her a strong sense of the importance of her role as an apheresis nurse at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. She found the session led by a psychologist particularly insightful, where she heard “heartfelt testimonies from patients which highlighted how nurses’ words and actions shape patient care.”

A significant learning indeed, which has inspired Laura to reflect on her nursing career and how she can improve the experiences of transplant patients and their loved ones.

Laura also enjoyed learning about research into advances and innovations in treatment, including the potential use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. She was also interested in hearing about the challenges faced by nursing colleagues worldwide and how hospitals overseas have addressed them.

Overall, Laura says that the EBMT conference has provided her with a “fresh perspective and a renewed commitment to advance her professional growth.” We are so pleased to have helped her achieve this through the awarding of an Arrow travel scholarship.

Malini Visweswaran

Typically, we support a number of nurses to attend various conferences, but this year we were also pleased to support Malini Visweswaran, a researcher at the St Vincent’s Centre for Applied Medical Research.

Malini says “I have been researching transplant related immunological changes in auto immune diseases over the last six years of my post doctoral work. Attending and giving an oral presentation at the EBMT conference was a career milestone for me.”

Her research which focuses on immunometabolism in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) after an allogenic haematopoietic stem cell transplant (AHSCT), was well received. Malini engaged in meaningful discussions with international experts and received constructive feedback which she described as a “remarkable opportunity”. One researcher even followed up with her after the conference to discuss her work further, highlighting for Malini, “the value of in-person engagement and network opportunities.”

In addition to presenting on her research, Malini also attended the Auto Immune Disease Working Party, where discussions centred on the efficacy of transplant in auto immune diseases and the growing number of clinical trials that are being done on AHSCT in MS. Interestingly, AHSCT is now endorsed in numerous countries as the standard of care for some auto immune diseases, including MS.

Malini also enjoyed the opportunity learn more about the new cutting edge CAR-T cell therapies that are being trialed for different auto immune diseases, and to see the CliniMACS Prodigy machine in action, which is being used to manufacture clinical grade cells.

Last but not least, Malini attended a highly informative statistics course, which deepened her understanding of data analysis methods and will further strengthen her research skills.

Malini says “Altogether, the conference has helped to enhance my learning, showcase my research at an International platform, expand my professional network in transplant immunology and to explore cutting-edge technologies, including equipment used in clinical-grade cell manufacturing. Overall, this experience has greatly contributed to my growth as a researcher.”

We are so pleased to have supported Malini through the travel scholarship and help create a valuable step forward in her research career.

Thank you to our supporters

We’re incredibly proud to support such talented individuals through our Travel & Conference Scholarship program and are grateful to the generous donors who make it possible.

Thank you to Mrs Driscoll and the Driscoll family, as well as Jazz Pharmaceuticals for their ongoing support of our scholarship program that allows us to help healthcare professionals of such high calibre attend international conferences.